PAN card signature size by route
The signature limits depend on where you apply and how you sign the application:
| Route | Signature rules | Maximum file size |
|---|---|---|
| Protean (NSDL), online with DSC | Colour JPEG, 200 DPI, 2 × 4.5 cm | 10 KB |
| Protean, e-Sign with scanned images | Check the form for format and size | 50 KB |
| UTIITSL, online | JPEG, JPG or PNG; no pixel or DPI check | Under 60 KB |
| This page | JPG, 4.5 × 2 cm at 200 DPI (354 × 157 px) | 10 KB |
Sources: Protean’s page for the online application with DSC (undated), Protean’s article on scanning and uploading documents, and the upload checks on UTIITSL’s online form, as checked in November 2026. Since 1 April 2026, new individual PAN applications use Form 93 in place of Form 49A, and Protean’s pages now say “Form 93 / Form 94”.
The preset fits every limit in the table. A 10 KB JPG at 200 DPI meets Protean’s DSC route, the tightest of the three, and is well inside the other two. Check the instructions on the route you use before you upload. UploadWell is an independent tool and is not affiliated with Protean, UTIITSL or the Income Tax Department.
How to make your PAN signature
- Sign on plain white paper at your usual size, with a pen that writes dark and evenly.
- Photograph it in daylight with the phone flat above the page, so the signature is level and there is no shadow from your hand or the phone.
- Add the photo here. Auto-crop trims the empty paper so the signature fills the 4.5 × 2 cm space, and cleanup turns the paper white.
- Check the preview. The whole signature should be visible and sharp. Raise the clean-up strength if grey patches remain, or lower it if thin strokes fade.
- Download the JPG. The result shows 354 × 157 px, 4.5 × 2 cm at 200 DPI, and the size in KB and bytes.
- Upload it in the signature field of your PAN application and check the preview before you submit.
Getting a signature under 10 KB
10 KB is a small file, but a signature has little in it: dark strokes on a plain background. What makes the file bigger is everything else in the photo, such as grey paper, shadows and the texture of the page.
- Clean white background, the default, replaces the paper with flat white, which takes up very little space in a JPG.
- JPG quality is lowered only as far as needed to stay under 10 KB, and the pixel size stays at 354 × 157.
- If a warning says it couldn’t get under 10 KB, raise the clean-up strength or retake the photo in brighter, even light.
The 10 KB limit is counted as 10,000 bytes, so the file is under 10 KB whether a portal counts 1 KB as 1,000 or 1,024 bytes.
Centimetres, DPI and pixels
Protean writes the signature size height first, “2 × 4.5 cm”: 2 cm tall and 4.5 cm wide. At 200 DPI that is 354 × 157 pixels (4.5 ÷ 2.54 × 200 = 354 and 2 ÷ 2.54 × 200 = 157, rounded).
The preset saves 200 DPI inside the JPG, so software that reads the file’s resolution sees 4.5 × 2 cm. UTIITSL’s form doesn’t check pixels or DPI, so the same file works there.
If your form gives a different size, change the width, height or resolution in the Size panel. The 10 KB maximum stays in place until you change it.
The other PAN uploads
- Photo: the PAN card photo resizer makes a 2.5 × 3.5 cm photo at 200 DPI as a JPG of 20 KB or less. On Protean’s Aadhaar e-KYC route, Protean says your Aadhaar photo is used, so no photo is uploaded.
- Supporting documents, Protean DSC route: 200 DPI, black and white, PDF/A or JPEG, at most 300 KB per page. UploadWell doesn’t create PDF/A files, so upload JPEG pages on this route. The Document Scanner straightens and cleans photographed pages; its black and white mode may save a page as PNG when that is smaller, so check the file type before you upload.
- Supporting documents, UTIITSL: a PDF under 5 MB. JPG to PDF joins page photos into one PDF, and Compress PDF brings a large scan down.