The Sarathi Parivahan portal at parivahan.gov.in is the strictest Indian government document portal for file uploads. Both photo and signature must come in under 20 KB each, JPEG only, with exact pixel dimensions. The portal rejects on technical grounds the moment you try to upload anything outside spec, and there is no second chance once you have paid the application fee — the photo and signature lock in until the RTO either approves the application or returns it.
Here is what the portal actually wants and how to prepare both files in one short pass.
Sarathi Parivahan upload spec for 2026
Photo
- Format: JPEG only (no PNG, no PDF)
- Dimensions: 35 × 45 mm (about 295 × 380 px)
- File size: under 20 KB
- Background: plain white or off-white
- Face coverage: 65-75% of frame
- Taken within: 6 months
Signature
- Format: JPEG
- Dimensions: 35 × 15 mm (about 295 × 130 px)
- File size: under 20 KB
- Ink: black ballpoint on plain white paper
- Running-hand signature
Both fields cap at 20 KB, which is unusual. Most portals allow 50 KB for the photo and 20 KB only for the signature. Sarathi treats both as equally constrained, presumably because the RTO databases were sized in the early 2000s and the limit was never raised. The pixel dimensions are also slightly larger than most portals, despite the smaller file size, which is what makes Sarathi notoriously hard to upload to.
Why Sarathi is harder than other portals
Three things make Sarathi uniquely strict. Both files share the 20 KB cap, with no room for negotiation. The portal validates the JPEG header strictly, so files saved by lightweight tools that omit certain JPEG markers get rejected. And the upload UI does not show a clear error message; it just refuses to advance to the next page, leaving applicants guessing what failed.
State variation adds noise too. A few RTOs run their own validation layer on top of Sarathi — Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in particular auto-reject photos that the central portal accepts. The safe play is to hit a buffer well under 20 KB (aim for 15-18 KB) for both files.
The five reasons Sarathi rejects uploads
1. File size over 20 KB. Even 21 KB bounces. Aim for 15-18 KB to give yourself a margin in case the upload encoder adds bytes.
2. Pixel dimensions wrong. 295 × 380 for photo, 295 × 130 for signature. The portal tolerates ±5% but rejects anything outside that band.
3. PNG masquerading as JPG. The portal reads the actual MIME type. A PNG renamed to .jpg gets caught immediately.
4. Signature in capital letters. Same as IBPS — Sarathi wants running-hand. Block capitals fail.
5. Light or yellow background.Sarathi's validator is colour-sensitive. Cream, beige, or pale yellow walls register as “non-white” and bounce. Use a plain white wall or tape an A4 sheet behind you.
State-by-state nuances
Most states accept whatever the central Sarathi portal accepts. Three caveats are worth knowing. Maharashtra runs a secondary validation on photo quality that occasionally rejects centrally-accepted files. If your application is bouncing despite passing Sarathi, retake the photo with better lighting before retrying. Tamil Nadu and Kerala are stricter on the 35 × 45 mm dimension and reject anything below 280 × 360 px. Use the higher end of the proportional range to be safe. Delhi and UP are the most lenient — files that struggle on other state portals often clear here.
Fixing photo and signature for Sarathi
The cleanest path: take a phone photo against a plain white wall, sign your name on plain A4 with a black ballpoint, and photograph the signature with the same phone. Then process both files inside the browser.
For exact pixel control, utiltap.com/image-resizer-pixels handles both files. Set 295 × 380 for the photo and 295 × 130 for the signature, output as JPEG. For the 20 KB cap, utiltap.com/resize-image-to-20kb takes either file and compresses to under 20 KB with a live preview, stopping just below the cap so quality stays as high as possible. Combine the two for a 90-second prep before opening Sarathi.
For the signature specifically, utiltap.com/signature-resizer detects the signature strokes automatically and crops around them, which beats manually cropping in a photo app — the auto-crop is tighter and produces a cleaner small-pixel JPEG. For finer control over the JPEG quality slider on the photo, utiltap.com/image-compressor lets you watch file size drop in real time. And if you want a passport-style centred crop instead of a tight head-only crop, utiltap.com/passport-photo-resizer-india outputs a 35 × 45 mm spec with face guides.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the photo and signature size for Sarathi Parivahan driving licence?
A: Photo: 35 × 45 mm (about 295 × 380 px), under 20 KB JPEG. Signature: 35 × 15 mm (about 295 × 130 px), under 20 KB JPEG. Both must be JPEG, and both cap at 20 KB — Sarathi is the only major Indian portal with the same KB cap for photo and signature.
Q: Why is my photo not uploading on parivahan.gov.in even though it is 18 KB?
A: Three common causes. The file is a PNG renamed to .jpg (the portal reads MIME, not extension). The pixel dimensions are off by more than 5% from 295 × 380. Or the background reads as off-white rather than pure white on the portal's colour check.
Q: Can I use my Aadhaar or PAN photo for Sarathi driving licence?
A: Technically yes if dimensions and size match, but it is usually unwise. Aadhaar photos are 600 × 600 px and need full resize, and PAN photos are even smaller. Taking a fresh photo specifically for Sarathi gives better results.
Q: What signature is accepted on Sarathi Parivahan?
A: A running-hand signature in black or blue ballpoint on plain white paper. Block capital letters or printed names are rejected. The signature you upload here is what appears on the printed driving licence card, so use the version you sign on bank documents.
Q: Does Sarathi accept a signature with full name written out?
A: Only if it is your normal signature. If your signature is your full name in cursive (e.g. “Manas Patidar” signed in running hand), that is accepted. A printed full name in block letters is not.
Try the free tool
Resize photo and signature to exact Sarathi spec, then compress both under 20 KB — entirely in your browser.
Open Image Resizer →