33×48mm Photo — Size, Pixel and Framing Guide

How Many Pixels Is 33×48 mm? Values at 300 and 600 DPI

A 33×48 mm photo is **390×567 pixels** at 300 DPI. The calculation is a single line: 33 ÷ 25.4 × 300 = 389.76 and 48 ÷ 25.4 × 300 = 566.93; rounded to the nearest pixel that is 390×567 px. The same formula at 600 DPI gives 779.53 × 1133.86, i.e. **≈780×1134 pixels**. For printing, 300 DPI is enough; 600 DPI leaves room for archiving and re-cropping. For every other document size derived from the same formula, see the full table of document photo sizes.

The last column of the table is what this page is really about: 33×48 mm has an aspect ratio of 0.688, while 35×45 mm sits at 0.778. The gap is 11.6% — so the two sizes are not “close enough”, and you cannot move from one to the other by scaling the same frame. Hitting the pixel count is the easy part; rebuilding the crop is the hard part.

Why Does 33×48 mm Need a Different Crop Than 35×45?

33×48 is 2 mm narrower and 3 mm taller than 35×45. That small difference grows once you turn it into a ratio: at the same height, a 33×48 frame carries **11.6% less width** than a 35×45 frame. If you already have a 35×45 photo, you have to trim that margin off the sides — giving up shoulder width — and because the centre of the crop moves, the head has to be realigned as well.

The second and less familiar difference sits in the head band. The Chinese standard asks for a head **28-33 mm** from chin to crown and 15-22 mm ear to ear; inside a 48 mm frame that means head height is **58-69%** of the photo. In a 35×45 crop following ICAO Doc 9303 Part 3 logic, the head is 32-36 mm, i.e. 71-80% of the frame. The conclusion is clear: in 33×48 the head sits **smaller**, leaving more room above the crown and around the shoulders. In the 50×60 mm size Turkish documents require, the same ratio drops to 53-60% — three sizes, three separate crops.

Which Application Actually Asks for This Size? (2026)

In our catalogue 33×48 mm belongs to a single application: the **People’s Republic of China visa**. The official photo instruction is published by the Chinese Visa Application Service Centres (CVASC) on behalf of the instruction of the Consular Department of the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The text lists: a colour photo taken within the last 6 months; size 48 mm × 33 mm; head width 15-22 mm and head height 28-33 mm; a neutral expression with eyes open, lips closed and **ears visible**; head tilt ≤20° left or right and ≤25° up or down; a background that is **white or close to white** with no edge frame; and printing on glossy photo paper, not matte or plain paper. Full text: CVASC — Photo requirements.

Two items in that list stand out. First the ear rule: Turkish, Schengen and US applications do not object to hair covering the ears, while China asks for them explicitly. Second the paper: the glossy requirement is the exact opposite of the Russian visa print, where matte paper is preferred — so two applications in the same period mean two separate print jobs. To compare which country asks for which size and background, open the visa photo sizes by country page; for China-specific rejection reasons and portal details, go to the China visa photo guide.

Why Is the Same Photo Needed Twice: Upload and Print?

The Chinese application wants the photo in **two separate forms**, and this is the most practical trait separating 33×48 mm from every other size. First a digital file is uploaded into the COVA (China Online Visa Application) form, where the system checks the frame automatically. China’s official COVA guidance openly accepts that this check can fail: if you do not pass it after multiple uploads you may still continue filling out the other sections, but **remember to bring a standard ID photo** when you submit your passport — PRC Embassy, COVA application guidance. The digital upload does not replace the print; the two run together.

On the digital side the accepted file band is commonly reported as JPEG, 40-120 KB and 354-420 × 472-560 pixels; since the official photo instruction publishes only the physical measurements, the safest move is to confirm those numbers against the warning shown on the upload screen itself. On the print side the quiet advantage of 33×48 appears: a 10×15 cm (102×152 mm) photo sheet fits **nine** copies in 3 columns × 3 rows (99×144 mm). The same sheet yields 8 for 35×45 and 4 for the 50×60 used in ID card and passport procedures — no other size returns more copies per sheet.

Can You Convert Your Existing 35×45 File to 33×48?

Most answers to this question are “yes, just crop it”; the arithmetic says otherwise. A 35×45 export is 413×531 pixels at 300 DPI. To reach an aspect ratio of 0.688 you must reduce the width to 365 pixels (531 × 0.688 = 365.3), leaving 365×531. But 33×48 needs 390×567 pixels — so after the crop you still face a **6.8% upscale**. Upscaling is the first thing noticed even on a small ID photo: hair edges soften and detail around the eyes washes out.

The right route is to re-render from the **original frame**, not from an export. A phone frame is already thousands of pixels wide; cropped at 0.688 it reaches the 390×567 target with no upscaling at all. That is what the vesikalik.com.tr flow does: your raw frame is cropped separately for each size, the background is moved towards white, and a fresh file is produced at the requested pixel-DPI pair — one for 33×48, another for 35×45. Two different sizes from one shoot is possible; two different sizes from one file is not. To see which rule arrives with which size per document, the biometric photo sizes by document in Turkey page is a good starting point.