SSC photo and signature rules, explained

By Aman, founder of FABX Labs · Updated 17 September 2026 · 5 min read

SSC now takes your photo live through the camera, so the file you actually prepare is your signature. What the 10–20 KB rule means, why scans get rejected, and how to get both right on a phone.

If you are applying for SSC CGL, CHSL, MTS or GD, the upload rules have changed from what older videos and coaching notes describe. The biggest change: in SSC's recent forms, the photo is no longer a file you upload. It is taken live, through your phone or laptop camera, inside the application.

That leaves one file you still have to prepare yourself, and it is the one people most often get wrong: the signature.

What SSC asks for now

These are the values SSC's recent notifications have used. SSC changes details between cycles, so read the notice for your exam before you start.

The signature is usually described as about 4 × 2 cm. Some notices have said 6 × 2 cm. In practice, the check that stops a form is the 10–20 KB window and the JPEG format, so get those exactly right.

The live photo: how to pass the camera check

Because the photo is captured on the spot, no photo editor or app can help with it. What helps is how you sit.

• Face a window. Daylight from the front gives an even face. A light behind you turns your face into a dark shape the camera cannot read.
• Plain background. Sit in front of a plain, light wall.
• No cap, no mask, no spectacles. SSC's instructions ask for all three to be removed.
• Hold the phone upright and still, at eye level, with your face in the centre of the frame.
• Do not photograph a printed photo. Pointing the camera at a passport photo is treated as a rejection.

If the capture fails, it is almost always the light. Move to a brighter spot and try again.

The signature: why good signatures still get rejected

A signature can look perfectly fine to you and still fail. The four usual reasons:

1. The file is too small. A clean black-on-white signature compresses so well that it often comes out at 6–8 KB. SSC's lower limit is 10 KB, so the file is refused for being too small, which surprises most people.
2. The file is too large. A photo straight from the phone camera is several MB.
3. It is a PNG or a screenshot. Only JPEG is accepted, and renaming a PNG to .jpg does not change what is inside.
4. It is in capital letters. Sign the way you sign a cheque, in running hand. A signature written in CAPITALS is not accepted.

A good tool handles the first two together. It shrinks a large photo into the window, and when a clean signature ends up under 10 KB, it adds size to the file without changing a single pixel of the signature.

Making the signature file on a phone

1. Sign on plain white paper with a black pen, in your usual running hand, slightly larger than you normally would.
2. Photograph it in daylight, holding the phone flat above the paper so there is no shadow from your hand or the phone.
3. Crop close to the signature, leaving a small white margin.
4. Open the SSC preset. It turns the grey phone photo into a clean black-on-white image and brings the file into the 10–20 KB range.
5. Download the file and check it once in the checker below before you upload.

The cleaner only tidies your own signature. It never draws or creates one, and you should never use a signature that is not yours.

If the portal still refuses it

• "File size should be between 10 KB and 20 KB": run the file through the SSC preset again. Don't compress it in another app first; that usually pushes it below 10 KB.
• "Invalid file type": the file is not a real JPEG. This often happens with iPhone photos and screenshots.
• Upload keeps failing with no message: the SSC site is slow near closing dates. Keep the tab open, try again after a few minutes, and avoid the last day if you can.

A note for older forms and other portals

Some SSC-related portals and older forms still ask you to upload a photo instead of taking one live. For those, the common size is 413 × 531 pixels, 20–50 KB, with a plain background and no cap, mask or spectacles. The SSC page keeps a preset for it.

Checklist before you submit

1. Aadhaar verified during registration, if you can.
2. Signature: black ink, white paper, running hand, JPEG, 10–20 KB.
3. Live photo taken facing a window, plain wall behind you, no cap, mask or spectacles.
4. Signature file opened once more: upright, sharp, and clearly yours.
5. Keep a copy of the signature file. The same one is useful for other SSC forms this year.

Tools used in this guide

More guides

• UPSC: the photo, the triple signature and the 10-day rule
• Form 16, ITR-V and bank statements: finding the PDF password you already have
• Split a large PDF to fit a 5 MB or 10 MB limit
• Colour, greyscale or black and white: which scan should you upload?