Exam Form Upload Errors Decoded — What Each Message Means and How to Fix It

Every week thousands of candidates copy an exam portal's error message straight into Google — messages like "Signature must be at least 300px width and 100px height. Your file is 275px × 118px." The good news: these messages are precise. Each one tells you exactly which of three things is wrong — the pixels, the KB or the file type. This guide translates the common ones and gives a fix for each.

First, read the message for these three clues

• "px", "width", "height", "dimension" — the image is the wrong size in pixels. Changing JPG quality will not help; you must resize.
• "KB", "file size", "MB" — the pixels may be fine but the file is too heavy or too light. Adjust compression, not dimensions.
• "format", "type", "extension" — the file is PNG, HEIC, WEBP or PDF instead of JPG.

Fix only the thing the message names. Changing everything at once is how people end up with a blurry, stretched photo that passes the upload check but fails human scrutiny later.

"Must be at least 300px width and 100px height. Your file is 275px × 118px."

This is a minimum dimension error. Your signature is 275 px wide — a common size because it matches the 3.5 cm width used by NTA forms (JEE Main signature: 275×118 px, 10–100 KB) — but this particular portal wants at least 300 px wide and 100 px tall. The height (118 px) is already fine; only the width is short.

Fix:

1. Go back to your original scan or phone photo of the signature, not the already-shrunk 275 px file. Enlarging a small file makes the strokes soft.
2. Crop around the signature leaving a thin white margin, keeping a wide shape (roughly 3:1).
3. Resize to the exact size the portal asks for — for example 300 × 100 px — with the resize by pixel size tool, then check the KB limit.

If you only have the small file, upscaling from 275 to 300 px (about 9%) is safe — the difference is too small to blur a signature. Avoid stretching only one side; keep the shape and add white margin instead.

"File size should be between 20 KB and 50 KB"

Pixels may be correct; the file is outside the KB window. Phone photos are 2–6 MB, so "too large" is the usual case.

Fix (too large): resize to the required pixels first — a 200×230 image at decent quality is only 15–35 KB — and then lower JPG quality step by step. Fix (too small): raise JPG quality to maximum. Small signatures sometimes still fall short; our resizer pads the file to the minimum without changing the image. See pixels vs KB explained for why the same photo can be 15 KB or 80 KB.

"Image dimension invalid" / "Please upload photo of 200 × 230 pixels"

Some portals check exact pixels rather than a range. A 201×230 file fails. Fix: use the preset for your exam from the size chart, which outputs the exact width and height. Crop to the same shape first so the face is not squashed.

"Invalid file type" / "Only JPG/JPEG allowed"

iPhones save photos as HEIC; screenshots are PNG; WhatsApp sometimes saves WEBP. Renaming photo.png to photo.jpg does not convert it — many portals read the file's real format and still reject it. Fix: convert properly with HEIC to JPG, PNG to JPG or WEBP to JPG.

"Upload failed" / spinner that never finishes

No size or type is mentioned, so the file itself is probably fine. Causes are usually a slow connection, an expired session, or the portal under last-day load. Fix: log out and in again, try another browser, keep files near the lower end of the KB range, and upload early in the application window.

Photo accepted, but the preview looks wrong

If the preview shows a stretched face, a cut-off signature, or the photo in the signature box, do not submit. The upload check only measures size; a person checks the image later. Re-crop, re-upload and confirm the preview before final submission. Our 12 rejection reasons guide covers what scrutiny looks for.

Quick reference