How it works
No jargon. Here is exactly what happens between picking a photo and getting a file you can print.
1. It finds your face
A face-detection model locates 478 points on your face — the bottom of your chin, the centre of each eye, the edges of your face. Those points are what let us measure you against the rules, which are written in terms of distances: your head has to be a certain height, your eyes a certain distance up from the bottom edge.
2. It separates you from the background
A second model works out which pixels are you and which are the room behind you, right down to individual strands of hair. We then place you on the plain white background the rules require. This is why you don't need a special backdrop — though a plain wall does give slightly cleaner edges.
3. It works out the crop
Here is the part that matters most. Face-detection models stop at your forehead — they can't see hair. If we cropped from those points we'd cut through tall hair, and the photo would fail. So we measure the top of your head from the background separation instead, which sees your hair correctly.
Then it's arithmetic: the crop is scaled so your head fills the regulation share of the frame, and positioned so your eyes land at the regulation height. Both rules are satisfied exactly, for every document, automatically.
4. It corrects the lighting — but not your face
We adjust overall brightness, colour cast and sharpness, the same corrections any photo lab applies. We donot smooth skin, remove blemishes, or reshape anything.
This is deliberate, not a limitation
The US State Department rejects photos altered by AI, filters or retouching, and says it checks for it. Any tool that "beautifies" your passport photo is handing you a photo that can be refused. We check compliance without altering you.
5. It checks the result and tells you the truth
You get a list of checks — head size, eye height, tilt, eyes open, expression, lighting, resolution — each marked pass, worth checking, or needs fixing, with plain-English instructions for anything wrong. We won't tell you a bad photo is fine, and we won't guarantee acceptance, because the decision belongs to whoever reviews your application.
Why it's free
Because it costs us almost nothing to run. The AI runs on your device, not our servers, so serving one more photo costs us nothing. Competitors charge $9.95 to $16.95 for these files. We may add paid extras later — things that genuinely cost money, like posting printed photos to you — but the photo and the print sheet stay free.