State PSC photo and signature requirements
State Public Service Commissions vary more than any other group of examinations — because each commission writes its own rules, with no central standard to converge on. A specification that is right for one state is simply a guess for the next.
This page does not list size figures, deliberately. Twenty-eight commissions, each revising independently, each varying by post and by year — a table of numbers would be stale in places and wrong in others, and being wrong here costs someone an application. What follows is how to find the right figure reliably, and how to avoid the sites that will give you a confident wrong answer.
Why this group is different
- No shared platform. Some recruitment bodies run a common application system across many examinations. State commissions largely do not, so there is no single specification to learn.
- Per-post variation. A commission may specify differently for different posts in the same year — a clerical post and a police post under the same commission can ask for different photograph sizes.
- Independent revision. Each commission updates its application process on its own schedule. There is no announcement and no central place that lists what changed.
Finding the official source safely
This is the part worth taking seriously. Searching for "UPPSC photo size" or similar returns a great deal of material from preparation sites, coaching portals and lead-generation pages, and some of it is not merely outdated.
-
Official commission sites end in
.gov.inor.nic.in. That is not a guarantee of quality, but it is a hard filter: a commission does not operate on a.com,.inor.orgdomain. - Be careful with lookalike addresses. Domains that differ from the official one by a hyphen, a plural, or a single letter exist, and they collect application details. If you are asked to enter an application number, a date of birth or an identity document number on a site you reached from a search result, check the domain before typing anything.
- Prefer the notification PDF over any summary. Including this one. Every figure you need is in that document, in a numbered paragraph, and it is the only version the portal will enforce.
The commissions
Every state and several union territories have a commission. Those you are most likely to be applying to, by the abbreviation you will see used:
| State or UT | Commission |
|---|---|
| Uttar Pradesh | UPPSC |
| Bihar | BPSC |
| Madhya Pradesh | MPPSC |
| Rajasthan | RPSC |
| Maharashtra | MPSC |
| Tamil Nadu | TNPSC |
| Karnataka | KPSC |
| Kerala | Kerala PSC |
| West Bengal | WBPSC |
| Gujarat | GPSC |
| Andhra Pradesh | APPSC |
| Telangana | TGPSC |
| Odisha | OPSC |
| Jharkhand | JPSC |
| Chhattisgarh | CGPSC |
| Punjab | PPSC |
| Haryana | HPSC |
| Himachal Pradesh | HPPSC |
| Uttarakhand | UKPSC |
| Assam | APSC |
| Jammu & Kashmir | JKPSC |
No links are given deliberately: commission sites move, and a stale link is a
worse outcome than a search. Search the commission's full name and check that
the result is on a .gov.in or .nic.in domain.
Reading the specification
- Download the advertisement or notification PDF for your post and year.
- Search the PDF for "KB". Every PDF reader has a find function.
- Find the section headed along the lines of instructions for uploading photograph and signature. It is usually an annexure.
- Note four things for each document: minimum KB, maximum KB, pixel dimensions, and format. The minimum is the one people miss.
- Note any rule about background, spectacles, or when the photograph must have been taken. These are checked by people, later, not by the form.
When the dimensions are in centimetres
Some state commissions specify a photograph in centimetres rather than pixels, because it is intended to be printable. The notification normally states a resolution as well, and the two convert to pixels. The size guide explains that conversion — and if a notification gives centimetres with no resolution, the resolution is usually stated elsewhere in the same section.
Common questions
Is there a single correct size for all state commissions?
No. There is no central standard. Any page that gives you one number for all states is guessing, and it will be wrong for most of them.
Can I reuse the same photograph file across several state applications?
Often yes, if it meets the recency rule and the dimensions each one wants. The file size is easy to change; the pixel dimensions and the age of the photograph are not, so keep a good original and re-derive each output from it rather than from a previously compressed copy.
Should I trust a size figure from a preparation site?
Treat it as a hint and verify it. Preparation sites are frequently accurate and frequently a cycle out of date, and there is no way to tell which from the page itself. The notification is short, searchable, and definitive.
If you have the current figures for a commission and they contradict something here, tell me — corrections from people who have actually submitted the form are the most useful feedback this site gets, and they are how the other pages on this site were written.