Why Your Signature Scan Keeps Getting Rejected

⏱ 5 min read · ExamPhoto

Exam application portals require two uploads: the photograph and the signature. Most applicants spend appropriate effort on the photograph and then rush through the signature upload, treating it as a formality. The result: signature rejections are common, often discovered late, and sometimes more disruptive than photo rejections because they're less expected.

The Signature Specification

Exam signature requirements typically include: dimensions of 3.5cm × 1.5cm (approximately 138 × 59 pixels at 100 DPI), white background, signature in black pen only, JPEG format, file size of 10KB to 30KB. The dimensions ratio is deliberately landscape — wide and short — reflecting the natural shape of a handwritten signature.

The signature upload needs to look like a signature on a white piece of paper, not a signature stamp or a printed text version of your name. It's a photograph of a handwritten signature, not a digital font.

Why Signature Scans Fail

The most common failure modes for signature uploads: signing on a ruled or graph paper background (the lines appear in the scan and the background isn't white), using blue pen (the spec requires black, and some portals detect ink color), signing in the middle of a full sheet and uploading the whole sheet (the dimensions will be wrong — crop tightly), signing too small so the signature doesn't fill the required landscape area, and uploading the signature in portrait orientation instead of landscape.

The Right Process

Sign on plain white paper with a black pen. Use a signature of appropriate size — about 5-8cm wide on paper. Photograph it in good light, or scan it on a flatbed scanner if available (scanning produces cleaner results with no shadows). Crop to just the signature with a small white border. Resize to the required dimensions. Compress to under 30KB.