| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Photo size in pixels | 160 wide × 200–212 high |
| Photo size in KB | 5 – 20 KB |
| Signature size in pixels | 256 wide × 64 high |
| Signature size in KB | 5 – 20 KB |
| Format | JPEG, PNG or TIFF for the photo · JPEG only for the signature |
The Maharashtra Police verification portal states the photo and the signature separately, and they are not the same shape. The photograph is portrait — 160 pixels wide by 200 to 212 tall. The signature is landscape — 256 wide by only 64 tall, four times wider than it is high.
Forcing a signature into the photo frame stretches it, and that single mistake is the commonest reason an upload is refused. This page opens with the photo preset loaded; switch the preset to the signature one for the second file.
The portal allows a height of 200 to 212 pixels, but a file built at exactly 212 is sometimes refused. Pixel rounding during encoding moves the final height by one, and at the boundary that puts it outside the range. 205 sits clear of both ends and is accepted every time.
Both the photo and the signature must be above 5 KB as well as under 20. A signature is a simple image, so ordinary compression tools push it down to three or four kilobytes and the portal rejects it for being too small — while the error message talks about size in a way that sounds like it is too large.
A photograph forwarded through WhatsApp arrives around 40 to 60 KB, which is over the ceiling here. Either way the fix is a tool that holds both ends, not one that only squeezes.
Sign on plain white paper with a black or dark blue pen — pencil and light ink all but disappear once the file is compressed. Photograph it square on, in even light, with no shadow from your hand across the paper. Then use the signature cleanup tool to lift the grey paper cast before resizing.
This portal refuses a file whose name contains a space, a dot or a special character, and the error it returns mentions size rather than the name. A file arriving from a phone is called something like WhatsApp Image 2026-09-07 at 9.21.45 PM.jpg and is refused no matter how correct its dimensions are. Rename it to photo.jpg and sign.jpg. The full explanation is in the file name guide.
The supporting documents on the same application — Aadhaar, election card, school certificate, the NOC letter — have their own limit of 75 to 100 KB, which is not the same as the 5 to 20 KB the photo and signature use. Those are handled on the document upload page.