For passport issuance, Greek citizes is required to submit a recent (taken within the last six months from the date of application) color digital photograph, in accordance with the technical specifications set out in ICAO document 9303, in which the person depicted must be wearing civilian clothing.

In cases where the request is submitted within Greece, the photograph must be submitted in digital format through the myPhoto electronic service operating on the gov.gr portal. To ensure a smooth transition to the new procedure for the submission of supporting documents for passport issuance and the uninterrupted service of citizens, printed facial photographs will be accepted at the latest until 31/01/2026.
In cases of submitting an application abroad, the photograph is either uploaded by the citizen to the special platform of the "Digital Service for Electronic Management of Consular Authorities" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and submitted through this digital service, or is provided in physical form by the citizen, printed on analog photographic paper, without the use of household ink-jet or laser technology. Alternatively, in Consular Authorities where appropriate and functional photographic equipment is installed, the photograph may be taken on site by the competent employee.

Photos posted on the myPhoto online electronic service must follow special digital file specifications .

To inform citizens, as well as photographers, about passport issuance processes, the photographs submitted must meet specific requirements as follows:

• The entire face should be clear, from the jaw to the forehead and from the one ear to the other.
• Shadings must not appear on the background nor the face. Sheens from the light reflected to the face must not appear also.
• Except the person photographed, any other persons or objects such as dolls, toys etc are not allowed to be appeared.
• The person must appear looking straight at the camera's lens.
• The person must appear with a neutral expression and a closed mouth.
• The person must appear with the eyes open (not wide open) in a way that they can be seen clearly. Sunglasses and myopic glasses with colored lenses (Photo Gray, Photo Brown etc) are prohibited.
• The hair must never cover the eyes, the eyebrows or any part of the person's face.
• The person must appear without any reflection on eye glasses, in case he/she is wearing, and the glasses frame must not cover the eyes or other face characteristics. To prevent this kind of problems, it is recommended not to wear eye glasses, when it is possible.
• The person must appear without a head cover. For religious reasons a person can wear a head cover (for example a kerchief etc), but the face characteristics from the jaw up to the forehead and from the one ear to the other must be in any case visible.
• The background of the photo should be uniform, free of patterns or shadows or other objects. A light colored background is required, preferably gray with an RGB value of (190;190;190) +/-10.
• The photo should be clear, distinct and must render the natural colors of the face, without color saturation.

Also, for health problems it is allowed to cover face characteristics (a medical certificate should be submitted).

For people with moving or other health problems should be made an effort of taking the photo as well as possible.

Proper way of taking photos

Pose
The frontal photo type must be used. The head rotation must be less than +/- 5 grades from the center at every direction (up and down, left or right). The shoulders must be "straight". The "portrait style" photos, in which the person looks over the one shoulder, are not accepted.
The image of the person appearing, from the base of the shoulders to the top of the hair, should cover 70-75% of the photo. Specifically, the distance from the chin to the top of the forehead should be 50-60% of the photo.

Expression
The expression must be neutral (without a smile), with both eyes normally open (not wide open) and the mouth closed. The biggest effort must be made, so that the pictures delivered will be according to the current specifications. Smile with closed mouth is not recommended. The person must be entirely alone (without backs of chairs, toys or other faces appeared), looking at the lens with neutral expression and closed mouth.

Examples of not accepted expressions

1. Closed eyes
2. Eyes covered by hair
3. Eyes partly covered by glasses frame

Examples of not recommended expressions

1. Smile and the teeth or the inside of the mouth is visible
2. Eyebrows rise
3. Eyes which do not look straight at the camera
4. Squint
5. Frown

Background
The limit between head and background must be totally distinct in the entire object (bushy hair is acceptable). There must be no shades at the face's background.

Shadows in the eyes
There must be no dark shades in the eyes because of the eyebrows. The iris and pupil must be distinctly visible.

Background sameness
The background must be plain without straight lines or curves. So it must be uniform or homogenously colored, with smooth vacillations of the lightness to only one direction.

Subject and background lighting
The lighting will be spread uniformly in every side of the face. No significant direction of the light must be visible from the photographer's optical angle.
Large earrings or jewelry around the neck should be avoided, especially those with shiny stones that reflect light, as well as white clothing.

Hot spots
Great attention must be given to avoid "hot spots" (bright areas of light which make the face shine). This phenomenon is usually being caused by the use of a highly bright intensity and concentration. Instead of that it's essential to use expansive light, multiple equal sources or other lighting methods.

Glasses
If the person usually wears glasses, then he/she must wear them when photographed. The glasses must be clean and transparent, so that the iris and pupil are clearly visible. If the glasses are getting automatically dark to the light, the person must be photographed in such a way that that the glasses do not change color. Only in extreme cases, in which the changing of the color cannot be reduced, the glasses must be taken off.
Dark glasses or sunglasses are acceptable only for medical reasons. In different situation they must be taken off.
It must be made sure that glasses frames do not cover the eyes.
There must be no light reflection on the glasses. This can usually be achieved by modifying the angle among the source of the light, the object and the camera at 45° (degrees) or more.

Eyes bandages
Use of bandages at the eyes is allowed only for medical reasons.

Not exaggerated or deficient exposure
For every detail of the face, the color gradations must be clearly visible. So there must be no saturation (from exaggerated or deficient exposure) to the face.

Focus and depth of the field
The picture must be perfectly focused from the nose to the ears and the jaw up to the hair. This can lead to background obscureness, but it's not a problem. During a typical photographing, for the best quality of the face, the f-stop of the camera lens must be adjusted at two (or more) f-stop under the highest stop opening, so as to achieve enough depth field.
All the pictures will have satisfying depth focus so as to maintain a better analysis from 2 mm at the photographed face. It can be achieved a better picture analysis than 1 mm, if in a test photographing the millimeter signs, placed at the nose and the ears or the face of the person that looks at the camera, are visible.
If the camera lacks of an automatic focus, then the person must be placed always at the best position.

Unnatural color
The unnatural colored light, yellow, red, etc is not allowed. Attention must be given to correct the balance of the white light of the camera. The light will give to the face at the picture a natural tone of the flesh. The "red-eyes" phenomenon is not allowed. The colored photos must be based on techniques of balanced colored light, like for example high temperature of the flash color.

Color or tone of grey gradation
A procedure which aims at exaggerated or deficient exposure of a color or a tone of grey for esthetic reasons is not allowed. The whole of the picture is requested. The teeth and the white of the eyes will be open colored or white (wherever needed) and the dark hair or characteristics (wherever needed) will be dark.

Actinic deformation of the camera lenses
The "fish-eye" phenomenon which is related to unusually big noses is not allowed. There is almost always some kind of deformation at portrait style photographing, but that deformation must be unnoticed during the human examination.
The actinic deformation due to the lens is a phenomenon, which has to be reduced. For a typical photographic system with the object at a distance of 1,5 m up to 2,5 m from the camera, the focal length of the lens must be as much as a typical telephoto lens. For example, for a photo of 35 mm is needed a 90mm to 130 mm focal length of a lens. Practically, about the various optical sensors, the recommended focal length is 2 to 3 times the diagonal of each sensor.

Picture at the center
The approximately middle points of the mouth and the nose must be met at an imaginary perpendicular line, which is placed in the horizontal center of the picture.

Printed photographs

In cases that the applicant's photograph is not submitted via online services, it is provided in physical form by the citizen. Printed photographs should also comply with the following:

• Dimensions of the photograph should be 40 mm x 60 mm without frame.
• Must be produced or printed on high quality white photographic paper, not watercolored or relief.
• Must be high analyzed and should not have dots (pixel - raster) or be produced on ink jet or laser printers.
• Printed photos, taken from a digital camera, must be analyzed at least at 1200 dpi or more.
• The paper used should not appear grey spots (Newton Circles) when pressured, while it's tested at a transparent glass surface.

You can download Greek comprehensive text with the technical specifications of passport photograph: