How to Compress a Photo for SSC CGL, CHSL, GD and MTS

SSC runs one registration profile across all its examinations, so the answer below is the same for CGL, CHSL, GD Constable, MTS, CPO, JE and Stenographer. Get the files right once and you can reuse them.

The part that surprises people: the photo is captured live

SSC captures the candidate photograph live inside the application module, so no fixed pixel dimension is published for it — the 3.5 × 4.5 cm guidance describes the printed equivalent. The signature is still a file upload and must meet the 10–20 KB rule.

In practice this means the photograph half of the job has moved inside the application module — you sit in front of the camera and SSC takes the picture. What you still have to prepare yourself is the signature, and that is where the rejections happen.

Preparing the signature

Sign in black or dark blue ink on unlined white paper. Photograph or scan it in good light, crop tightly to the signature itself, then resize to 140 × 60 pixels and bring the file into the 10–20 KB band.

Resize a signature to 140 × 60 pixels — that page sets the dimensions and the size target together.

Why the minimum catches people out

This is the single most common way a second or third attempt fails. The specification is a range. A photograph squeezed down to 6 KB is rejected exactly as firmly as one at 80 KB, and the error message rarely distinguishes between the two. If you have compressed a file repeatedly trying to get it accepted, check whether you have fallen through the floor.

If your signature file comes out under 10 KB — which happens easily, because a signature is mostly white space and compresses extremely well — the fix is to go back to a larger crop or a cleaner scan rather than to re-save the tiny file.

If you are preparing a photograph anyway

Some SSC cycles, and several state police recruitments that use the SSC module, still ask for an uploaded photograph. The target is 20–50 KB, JPG, plain light background.

Reduce an image to under 50 KB · Photo and signature resizer with both targets

The method, in the order that works

Every one of these forms checks the same four things, and they are checked independently. A file can pass three and fail the fourth.

1. Format. JPG. Not PNG, not HEIC, not WebP, whatever your phone saved it as. Renaming the file does not convert it — portals read the bytes inside, not the extension.
2. Pixel dimensions, where the board publishes them.
3. File size, which is almost always a range rather than a ceiling.
4. Content — plain background, face filling most of the frame, a signature in running handwriting on white paper.

Do them in that order. Cropping and resizing change the file size, so if you compress first you will have to do it again. Set the dimensions, then squeeze the kilobytes, then check you are still above the minimum.

What gets an SSC upload refused

• A PNG renamed to .jpg. The portal reads the file header. Re-encode it properly instead.
• A signature in block capitals. A signature is supposed to be your running handwriting.
• A grey background behind the signature. Scanning lined or shadowed paper leaves a tint that reads as a dirty image. Scan flat, in even light.
• A file under the minimum. See above — this is the one that catches people who have already tried twice.
• Leaving it to the deadline. GD Constable in particular draws very high volumes and the portal slows badly in the final days. Prepare both files before you open the form.

Every tool linked here runs inside your browser. Your photograph and signature are never uploaded to this site or anywhere else, which matters rather more than usual when the file is a scan of your signature.

Every SSC exam

Preset pages, each with the specification on it: SSC CGL, SSC CHSL, SSC GD Constable, SSC MTS, SSC CPO, SSC JE, SSC Stenographer.

Full directory of every board we cover: exam photo and signature sizes. Longer list of rejection causes: why your exam form photo keeps getting rejected.