How to crop a signature from a photo
- Sign on plain white paper in dark ink, then photograph or scan it in good light, straight on.
- Open the photo. The SSC signature preset is selected; switch to PAN or Custom if your form asks for something else.
- Press Trim to ink. The crop moves close to the edges of the signature and keeps the form’s shape around it.
- Tick Clean paper to turn grey paper white and make the ink darker. The before and after previews show the difference.
- Press Crop Picture. The JPEG is settled inside the KB window and the spec check confirms size, DPI, KB and format.
Signature specs
Each preset shows where its numbers come from and when they were checked.
| Preset | Rules | Source · checked |
|---|---|---|
| SSC exam signature | JPEG, 10 KB to 20 KB; About 4.0 cm wide × 2.0 cm high; Signature in dark ink on white paper | Staff Selection Commission (Karnataka–Kerala Region), CHSLE 2022 notice · 2026-10-18 |
| PAN application signature | JPEG, 50 KB or smaller; 200 DPI; 2 cm high × 4.5 cm wide | Protean, “PAN card documents scanning / uploading method” · 2026-10-18 Confirm on the official portal — not tied to an official page here. |
Why signatures need their own mode
A signature photographed on a desk is mostly paper: grey, unevenly lit, sometimes with the edge of the table in the frame. A form wants the opposite — the signature filling a small, wide box, on white, at an exact size in centimetres and inside a narrow KB window. This mode does the three steps in order. Trim to ink finds the signature itself with a threshold measured from your own paper, so faint pencil lines and dust do not pull the crop wide. Clean paper sets the paper to white and the ink to a strong tone. Then the size, DPI and KB window from the preset finish the job.
Because a signature is small and simple, the 10–20 KB window often needs a higher quality, not a lower one; the encoder search raises quality when the file would be too small, and tells you plainly if even the best quality cannot reach the minimum. Nothing is uploaded — the signature never leaves this tab.
The photo for the same form is on crop photo for form.
Frequently asked questions
How does Trim to ink work?
It measures the paper’s brightness, finds the pixels clearly darker than it (ignoring dust specks) and crops close to them with a little space. The form’s shape is kept, so space is added rather than the signature being squashed.
What does Clean paper change?
Near-white paper becomes pure white and the ink gets darker; blue ink stays blue. It only happens when you tick it, and the previews show the result first.
What size is the SSC signature?
About 4.0 × 2.0 cm, JPEG, 10–20 KB, per the SSC notice. Check the current notice before uploading.
What size is the PAN signature?
2 cm high × 4.5 cm wide at 200 DPI, JPEG, ≤ 50 KB. The preset is marked “confirm on the official portal”.
Can I get a transparent signature for documents?
Ink-only transparent PNG is planned. Today you get JPEG on white — what upload portals expect.