2x2 Picture Size & How to Make One Online (Free, White Background, Name Tag)

"2x2 picture, white background" is on almost every Philippine requirements list — PRC, the Civil Service exam, NBI clearance, school enrolment, company IDs. Photo studios charge for it, and the online tutorials want you to wrestle with Word, Canva or PicsArt. Here is the exact size in pixels and centimetres, what each agency actually asks for, and the two-minute way to make one from a phone photo with the free 2x2 Picture Maker — no app, nothing installed.

2x2 Picture Size (and 1x1, Passport Size)

The pixel numbers matter for online uploads: 300 DPI is the print standard, so a 2x2 at 300 DPI is 600 × 600 px, a 1x1 is 300 × 300 px, and passport size is 413 × 531 px. Portals that check dimensions expect these. "2x2" is square; "passport size" is taller than wide — they are not interchangeable, so read your form.

What Each Agency Asks For

• PRC (LERIS) — 2x2 (some boards: passport size), plain white background, collared shirt, neutral face, no eyeglasses, name tag with SURNAME, FIRST NAME, M.I., uploaded as JPG under 2 MB. The PRC ID picture page has all of that pre-set.
• Civil Service exam — white background, collared attire, name tag, passport size or 2x2 per the announcement (CSC picture page).
• NBI clearance — 2x2, white background, JPEG under 2 MB, no name tag (NBI photo page).
• BIR digital TIN ID — 1x1, white background, no border (1x1 picture page).
• DFA passport — taken on-site for new passports; consular renewals and some forms want 35 × 45 mm (passport size page).
• Schools, companies, LGUs — usually "2x2 or 1x1, white background, recent". When in doubt, make both; it costs nothing.

How to Make a 2x2 Picture from a Phone Photo

1. Take the photo. Stand facing a window or a bright wall, phone at eye level, head and shoulders in frame, plain expression, collared shirt if it is for PRC or CSC. The background does not need to be white — the tool fixes that.
2. Open the 2x2 Picture Maker and upload the photo (JPG, PNG or HEIC straight from the phone).
3. Choose the size. 2x2 is pre-selected; switch to 1x1 or passport size if that is what the form says.
4. Background. Keep "Remove background (AI)" and White. The person is cut out, framed head-and-shoulders, and placed on plain white. If your photo is already a studio shot on white, pick "Keep my background, just crop" and drag the box instead.
5. Name tag (PRC / CSC only). Tick it and type SURNAME, FIRST NAME M.I. The white strip is drawn inside the picture, so it stays exactly 600 × 600 px.
6. File type and size. Keep JPG and "Under 2 MB" for uploads. Choose a print sheet paper if you need physical copies.
7. Make, check, download. Look at the preview, then download the picture and the print-sheet PDF.

How Many 2x2 Pictures Fit on a Sheet?

The tool lays out copies automatically with cut lines. Counts below allow a 5 mm printer margin on bond paper and 2 mm cutting gaps; 4R is assumed borderless, the way photo shops print it.

Print the PDF at 100% / Actual size — never "Fit to page", or every picture shrinks and stops being 2x2. Glossy photo paper or thick bond both work; cut along the grey lines with a cutter and ruler.

Common Mistakes

• Stretched faces. Resizing a rectangular photo straight to 600×600 in an editor squashes it. Crop to a square first — the tool does this for you.
• Grey, not white. A white wall photographed indoors comes out grey or yellow. Use the AI background removal and pure white, or ask for the studio photo's original file.
• Too big for the portal. Phone photos are 3–6 MB. Keep JPG and the 2 MB limit on; the tool re-encodes until it fits without changing the pixel size.
• Name tag added as a caption outside the photo. That changes the size. The strip must sit inside the 2x2 frame.
• Old photo. PRC, CSC and NBI want a recent picture (within about six months). Take a new one — it takes a minute.

That is all there is to it: know the pixel size, let the tool handle the background and framing, and print at 100%. The ID Picture Maker makes 2x2, 1x1 and passport-size pictures for free, and your photo is never stored.