PADI Certification Card Photo Size (45×57 mm)

Official PADI photo requirements

PADI publishes slightly different guidance for printed application photos and for digital card or profile updates. The sizes below come from PADI’s Master Scuba Diver application form and from PADI’s certification-card FAQ (checked 19 Oct 2026). This page is not a US government ID photo guide — PADI is a scuba certification organization, and the “US” in the URL is only this site’s document slug. The same card-photo size is used worldwide.

Printed / application photo: Tape or attach a 4.5 cm × 5.7 cm (about 1¾ × 2¼ in) head-and-shoulders photo. That converts to 45 × 57 mm, which matches the export size this preset targets. Print your name on the back of the photo. Coin-machine photos are OK. No dark glasses. Source: PADI Master Scuba Diver Application (pro-cms training form).

Digital upload (replacement / profile photo): Use a blank background. Crop so the image shows only head and shoulders. Do not wear dark glasses, a hat, or anything that obscures your face. Save as JPG or PNG and keep the file 4.5 MB or smaller. PADI staff review and verify every certification card photo; a new image may take up to about two days to appear. Sources: PADI certification card FAQs blog and padi.com/certification-cards.

Dive-pro / PIC Online channel: Dive centers submitting student photos through PIC Online may see additional channel-specific rules (for example no scuba masks or hats). File-size caps on that portal can differ from the public 4.5 MB FAQ figure — some older search snippets mentioned tighter shop limits, but that page was not fully re-verified for this update. Follow the current PIC Online or local PADI Office instructions when you submit for a student, and do not treat any single kilobyte number as a universal PADI limit.

What not to wear in the photo

PADI’s public card-photo FAQ is clear: do not wear dark glasses, a hat, or anything that obscures your face. Keep eyes visible and the head-and-shoulders crop uncluttered so staff can verify identity against your certification record. Sunglasses with dark lenses are a common failure mode even when the rest of the crop looks fine.

For dive-center / PIC submissions, instructors commonly also reject scuba masks in the frame. If you are uploading through a pro account, check that channel’s current terms rather than assuming the public FAQ covers every shop workflow. When in doubt, take a fresh civilian head-and-shoulders shot without dive gear.

Blank background — shoot it, don’t invent it

PADI asks for a blank background. That wording does not say the backdrop must be pure white (#FFFFFF), and it does not say you may digitally cut out and replace the background. Prefer a real plain wall with no clutter, posters, plants, or other people in frame. A light or neutral wall is usually enough; inventing a studio backdrop in software is the wrong approach for a staff-reviewed card photo.

PhotoGov’s PADI Certification Card preset detects the face (same MTCNN detector used by our other ID-photo presets), then crops and resizes your photo to 45 × 57 mm (531 × 673 px at our print tip of 300 DPI). It does not matte, remove, or replace the background and does not apply beautification. Auto white-background replacement can change pixels in ways staff notice during review — a rejection risk for a blank-background, human-reviewed card photo.

If your existing photo has a busy backdrop, the safer fix is to re-shoot against a plain wall, then size and crop. Competitor photo tools often advertise mandatory white backgrounds or invented head-height percentages for this size; those claims are not in PADI’s cited forms or FAQ, so we do not repeat them here. Acceptance remains with PADI after staff review.

How to take the photo at home

Stand against a plain, uncluttered wall. Place the camera or phone at eye height about an arm’s length away so your head and shoulders fill the frame without cutting the top of the head or crowding the chin against the bottom edge. Leave a little space above the hair so a later crop still looks natural.

Use even frontal light — near a window works well — and avoid strong overhead lamps that cast shadows on the face or wall. Remove dark glasses and hats. Keep a natural expression with eyes open and look straight at the lens. You do not need a pharmacy booth if you can get a sharp, blank-background head-and-shoulders shot at home.

If you will attach a print to a paper application, print at about 4.5 × 5.7 cm, write your name on the back, and confirm the form still allows coin-machine photos when that is what you used. For digital replacement cards, keep the file as JPG or PNG within PADI’s published 4.5 MB FAQ limit for the public upload path.

Size and crop with PhotoGov

Choose PADI Certification Card on the create flow (`/create?doc=us_padi_card`), upload a clear portrait taken against a plain wall (no background apps or filters), then download the cropped JPG. PhotoGov only crops and resizes to the published 45 × 57 mm dimensions; it does not replace the background. The export is typically well under PADI’s 4.5 MB digital FAQ limit because we compress for web download — that smaller file is a PhotoGov choice, not a PADI-mandated 300 KB rule.

Whether PADI accepts the file is decided after staff review. We do not claim PADI approval, partnership, or guaranteed acceptance.

After you upload

When you replace a photo through PADI’s certification-card flow, staff review the new image. PADI’s FAQ notes that a new photo may take up to about two days to appear on your record after upload. Plan around that review window if you need the eCard photo updated before travel or a course.

Ordering a replacement physical card is a separate step from the photo itself: PADI’s card pages describe print-and-ship timing for physical cards (for example print within a couple of business days, with delivery sometimes taking longer). Treat those timelines as shipping background, not as photo-spec rules. Always re-check the current PADI FAQ and certification-cards page before you submit.

Practical tips

• Shoot against a real plain wall — do not digitally replace the background.
• Crop to head and shoulders only; leave out scuba gear and busy scenes.
• PADI’s public digital FAQ allows JPG or PNG up to 4.5 MB; PhotoGov exports a smaller JPG for web use.
• 300 DPI is a print tip for a 45 × 57 mm print, not a PADI-published digital mandate.
• Write your name on the back of printed application photos.

Why PADI card photos get rejected

• Busy or non-blank background, or an obviously software-replaced backdrop
• Dark glasses, hat, or anything that obscures the face
• Crop that is not head-and-shoulders (full body, group shot, or extreme close-up)
• File not JPG/PNG, or over the digital size limit for the upload channel you use
• Scuba mask or other dive gear in frame on dive-pro / PIC submissions

FAQ

Related

• Make a PADI card-sized photo
• All document photo sizes
• passport photo maker
• PhotoGov blog
• US passport photo size
• PADI certification card FAQs (official blog)
• PADI certification cards (replace / order)