Uploading your photo and signature on Protean (NSDL)
Which way of applying for PAN on Protean's site asks for uploads, the photo, signature and document limits it states, and how to make files that pass them.
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In short
- Protean eGov Technologies is the new name of NSDL e-Gov. Its PAN site asks for a photo and signature only on the scanned-image route, not with Aadhaar e-KYC and e-Sign.
- Make the photo 197 × 276 pixels at 200 DPI and under 20 KB, and the signature 354 × 157 pixels at 200 DPI and under 10 KB. Those meet both of Protean's published limits.
- Supporting documents go up separately, at most 300 KB a page, as PDF or JPEG scanned at 200 DPI in black and white.
- Windows shows a 20,000-byte file as 19.5 KB. Either way it is under Protean's 20 KB.
- Save the photo and signature as .jpg. A phone's HEIC photo or a PNG is not the type Protean asks for.
Most people still call it NSDL, but the company that runs this half of India's PAN applications is now Protean eGov Technologies, formerly NSDL e-Governance. If you are applying for a new PAN, or a correction, on Protean's website and it asks for your photograph and signature, this page covers what it wants, when it wants it, and how the tool above makes files that fit. Applying through UTIITSL instead? Its limits are different; use PAN Card Photo Resize, which has presets for both agencies.
Do you need to upload anything?
Protean's own guide to applying online describes three ways to submit an application, and only one of them involves uploading a photo:
| Way of applying | Photo and signature | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| Physical: print the form and post it | Paste printed photographs on the form and sign it | Sent by post with the form |
| Aadhaar e-KYC and e-Sign, paperless | Not uploaded: Protean's guide says you won't be asked to upload any photograph or supporting documents | Not uploaded |
| Scanned images, signed with e-Sign or a DSC | Uploaded as image files | Uploaded as scanned files |
So the first question is which route you chose. With Aadhaar e-KYC the details come from your Aadhaar record and you sign with an OTP, and there is nothing to resize. On the scanned-image route — and when you sign with a digital signature certificate (DSC) — the photo and signature are uploaded as files, and they have to meet the limits below.
The photo and signature Protean asks for
Protean publishes its upload limits in two places, and they are not identical.
| Photo | Signature | |
|---|---|---|
| DSC instructions | Colour JPEG, 3.5 × 2.5 cm, 200 DPI, max. 20 KB | Colour JPEG, 2 × 4.5 cm, 200 DPI, max. 10 KB |
| Online application guide, scanned-image route | .jpg, 3.5 cm high × 2.5 cm wide, max. 50 kB | .jpg, 2 cm high × 4.5 cm wide, max. 50 kB |
The guide's "high × wide" wording settles the shape: the photo stands upright and the signature lies long. The guide also says the images should be under 200 DPI, while the DSC table states 200 DPI exactly. The tool follows the DSC table's 200.
The tool's presets use the stricter limits — 20 KB for the photo and 10 KB for the signature — because a file inside them is inside both. A 20 KB photo is well within 50 kB; a 30 KB one would pass the guide's limit and fail the DSC table's.
From centimetres to pixels
Protean gives sizes in centimetres, but an image file is made of pixels. At a given DPI — dots per inch — the conversion is:
pixels = cm ÷ 2.54 × DPI
At Protean's 200 DPI:
| Size | Pixels at 200 DPI | |
|---|---|---|
| Photo | 2.5 cm wide × 3.5 cm high | 197 × 276 |
| Signature | 4.5 cm wide × 2 cm high | 354 × 157 |
For example, the photo's width is 2.5 ÷ 2.54 × 200 = 196.9, which rounds to 197 pixels. The DPI is also written into the file, so a program that opens it at 200 DPI shows it at the stated size in centimetres. The presets set the pixels and the DPI together, which is the point: the same 197 × 276 pixels labelled 300 DPI would print at only 1.67 × 2.34 cm.
Making the photo
- Choose PAN, Protean (NSDL) — photo in the tool and pick your photo. A phone photo is fine; it is far larger than needed, and the tool reduces it.
- Move the photo under the frame so your face is centred and fills most of it, with a little space above your head. The frame is already the shape Protean asks for.
- If the photo is sideways, use Turn left or Turn right before positioning it.
- Save it. The tool adjusts the JPEG quality until the file is under 20 KB, and shows the final size in bytes.
Protean asks for a colour photograph. A recent photo, facing the camera, against a plain light background and without dark glasses, is what PAN photographs have always looked like, and what a person checking the application expects to see.
Making the signature
- Sign on plain white paper with a black pen. Protean's checklist is direct about this: never sign on a patterned or coloured background.
- Photograph or scan the page flat, in good light, with no shadow across it.
- Choose PAN, Protean (NSDL) — signature and pick the photo. By default the tool trims the empty paper round your signature and turns the paper white, then fits the signature, whole, into the 354 × 157 frame.
- Save it. The tool keeps it under 10 KB.
Sign as you normally do, and roughly in the shape of the frame — long and low. A tall, narrow signature still fits, but it ends up small in the middle of a wide frame. For other signature sizes, Signature Resize has presets for many exams and forms.
Supporting documents
Your proof of identity, address and date of birth are uploaded separately from the photo and signature, with their own limits. Protean's DSC table gives them as black and white, 200 DPI, PDF/A or JPEG, at most 300 KB per page; its online guide says PDF, at most 300 kB each.
Scanning at 200 DPI in black and white is what keeps a page under 300 KB. An A4 page at 200 DPI is about 21 ÷ 2.54 × 200 = 1,654 by 29.7 ÷ 2.54 × 200 = 2,339 pixels, and in black and white a page of text at that size is small. A colour scan, or a phone photo saved at full resolution, can be several times larger, which is the usual reason a document upload fails.
How big is 20 KB?
Protean's table writes "Max. 20 KB" without saying how many bytes a kilobyte is, and there are two answers in common use: 1,000 bytes, and 1,024 bytes as Windows counts. The tool takes the safe one: its photo preset stops at 20,000 bytes, which is under 20 KB on either count. Windows Explorer will show that file as 20,000 ÷ 1,024 = 19.5 KB, which is expected. The signature preset stops at 10,000 bytes, shown by Windows as 9.8 KB.
At these pixel sizes the files usually come out well under the limits — a 197 × 276 JPEG is small to begin with — so the photo stays sharp. If a file you made elsewhere is rejected as too large, the most likely reason is that it was resized to 20 KB on the 1,024-byte count, which is 20,480 bytes and over the limit if Protean counts in thousands. The MB to KB converter explains the two kilobytes in more detail.
Why a Protean upload gets rejected
- The wrong file type. Protean asks for JPEG, and its guide allows only .jpg. Photos from an iPhone are often HEIC, and screenshots are PNG. The tool always saves a
.jpg. - Over the limit. A photo at 21 or 25 KB, or a signature at 12 KB, can pass a tool that aimed at 50 kB and still fail the DSC table.
- The other agency's preset. A photo made for UTIITSL can be up to 30 KB and is square, so it is neither Protean's size nor its shape.
- A signature on lined or coloured paper. It breaks Protean's checklist, and the lines can confuse the trimming, which looks for dark ink on light paper.
- Documents scanned in colour or at high resolution. Rescan in black and white at 200 DPI.
What this tool assumes
- Two presets, both from Protean's DSC instructions: the photo at 197 × 276 pixels and the signature at 354 × 157, both at 200 DPI, capped at 20,000 and 10,000 bytes. "Another form — I will type the limits" lets you set your own.
- The pixel size is fixed by the preset, so only the JPEG quality changes to meet the limit.
- It makes the photo and the signature. It does not make or compress the PDF documents.
- Your images are processed in your browser, on your device, and are never uploaded. The saved JPEGs carry no EXIF data, such as the location a phone records.
- Calci.in is not connected with Protean, UTIITSL or the Income Tax Department. The limits are as Protean's pages state them; check the current page before you apply, in case they have changed.
To put the photo and signature in one image for a form that asks for them together, use Merge Photo and Signature.