SSC Photo and Signature Size in 2026

Para 9.4 of the CGL 2026 notice puts it plainly: “The application module has been designed to capture a photograph of the candidate filling up the application form.” When prompted, you face a webcam or phone camera and the picture is taken there and then. You never handle a photo file, so a KB figure for it has nothing to apply to.

Without a working webcam, use the QR code on the Upload Documents page to get the Android app from the Google Play Store and take the shot by phone. Pointing the lens at a printed or saved picture of yourself gets the form rejected, unless it was filed through Aadhaar Based Authentication. The notices also expect your appearance at the examination to match the captured image.

The camera step has its own short checklist:

Both figures appear, sometimes inside one document. The numbered paragraph on uploads (9.6 in CGL and CHSL 2026, 8.7 in Constable GD, 9.9 in Stenographer, 10.6 in JE and MTS) gives about 6.0 cm (width) x 2.0 cm (height). Further back, the Part-II walkthrough of the online form in the CGL and CHSL notices says about 4.0 cm instead.

Treat the 6.0 cm line as the rule. It sits in the body of all six notices, the Constable (GD), MTS, Stenographer and JE annexures repeat it, and the 4.0 cm width turns up only in those two form walkthroughs. Two things stay fixed in every line: a JPEG file of 10 to 20 KB. Pages that give only 4 × 2 cm have copied the walkthrough figure. Both versions call the width “about”, so aim for the 3:1 strip of the main paragraph; a slightly narrower strip still matches the short, wide shape the annexure describes.

Centimetres only become pixels once a DPI is chosen, and five of the six notices name none. The exception is the Constable (GD) 2026 notice, whose list of upload steps reads “About 6.0 cm (width) X 2.0 cm (height) at a resolution of 300 DPI”, which works out at 709 × 236 pixels. For the other exams either density fits the wording, and 200 DPI gives a smaller strip of 472 × 157 that is easier to keep under 20 KB.

No SSC notice prints a pixel size, so 140 × 60 or 400 × 200 px figures on resizer sites are not SSC numbers. To build the strip, open the cm resizer, which starts at 6 × 2 cm and 300 DPI (type 200 if you prefer the lighter file), and then bring the result to the compressor below for the 10 to 20 KB band.

Beyond the shared JPEG, 10 to 20 KB and 6.0 × 2.0 cm wording, the GD 2026 notice says “Signature should be horizontally aligned” and names the commonest fault outright: “The major reasons for rejection of signatures are ‘miniature’ signatures.” Its upload checklist writes the band as “10KB to 20KB in JPEG/JPG Format” and is the only place in any of the six documents where a DPI appears.

Horizontally aligned means the signature runs level along the strip instead of climbing at an angle. Sign along a straight pencil line, photograph the paper square on, and crop so the ink reaches close to both ends. A small scrawl ringed by centimetres of white paper is what becomes a miniature signature once shrunk to the strip.

One catch for GD applicants: the compressor below sets the weight, not the density, and does not carry a DPI value into the saved JPG. If you want the file to state 300 DPI as well, run the compressed signature through the DPI converter last. It rewrites only that header number, so the pixels stay put and the KB size barely moves.