A photo booth, a high-street shop, the Post Office, a photo taken at home or an online service: each route gives you something slightly different. Here is how they compare on what you get, who checks the photo and what happens if it is wrong.
Printing your own passport photos is allowed, but three requirements decide whether it works: professional-standard quality, plain white photographic paper, and no border. Here is the process, and where home printing goes wrong.
A photo code is a reference number a booth or shop gives you so HM Passport Office can retrieve your photo directly. It is one of three ways to supply a photo online — and it is not the only one.
Online applications take a digital photo or a photo code; paper applications need two identical prints. Which route each UK application accepts, what each one costs you in time, and the cases where you genuinely need both.