Drop your CAT photograph, get a 1200×1200 px JPEG under 80 KB — the iimcat.ac.in upload format. For the signature, clear Exact size (or use 472×207) and keep the 80 KB target. Nothing is uploaded.
CAT 2026 dates (from iimcat.ac.in): registration opens Monday, August 3, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. IST and closes Tuesday, September 15 at 5:00 p.m. IST; admit cards from November 4; test day Sunday, November 29, 2026. IIM Indore convenes this cycle. With registration open, the official CAT 2026 Registration Guide (the 22-page PDF under “About CAT 2026” on iimcat.ac.in) now states the upload spec directly, and every number below matches it.
The CAT application takes two images, both JPG/JPEG: a recent passport-style photograph at 1200×1200 pixels, in colour against a white or light background and not older than six months, and a scanned signature — black pen on white paper — sized about 80×35 mm at a minimum of 150 pixels/inch. Keep each file under 80 KB. This page is preset for the photograph: exactly 1200×1200, best JPEG quality that fits under 80 KB. If your photo isn't square it's cropped to square — drag the crop preview to keep headroom above your face.
About that 80 KB figure: guides used to disagree — most printed ≤80 KB while a couple quoted a 1 MB limit read off the upload widget. The official CAT 2026 Registration Guide settles it: “the file size should not be more than 80KB each”, for both the photograph and the signature. Its dimension wording is “within the dimensions of 1200 pixels x 1200 pixels”, so an exact 1200×1200 file — what this page produces — passes by construction. If the upload screen in your session states different limits, the portal wins.
1.44 million pixels under 80 KB means visible JPEG compression — that's what the spec asks for, not a defect in your photo. PixFit binary-searches for the best quality that still fits, rather than crushing the file far below the cap the way fixed-quality converters do. A clean, well-lit source scan gives the encoder the best chance; the official advice is to scan the print with a real scanner rather than photographing it with a phone.
80×35 mm isn't a pixel count — at the stated 150 px/inch minimum it works out to roughly 472×207 pixels. Type 472x207 into Exact size above (any same-shape size a bit larger also works), keep the 80 KB target, and crop your scan close to the ink first — a tight, wide strip beats a signature floating in white space. The stated 150 px/inch minimum can also ride along in the file itself: type 150 into the DPI label field and PixFit writes it into the JPEG header (a label — pixel dimensions and file size are what upload validation actually checks). Sign in your normal running hand — all-capitals signatures are rejected at verification, and you'll reproduce this signature at the exam and admission stages. The scanning advice on the IBPS signature page applies here unchanged.
At least one widely-read CAT guide carries tables saying the photo should be 120×150–200×230 pixels and the signature 80×35–100×50 pixels — those are another exam family's specs pasted into a CAT article, contradicting the same article's own opening paragraphs. Neither matches the 1200×1200 / 80×35 mm figures the portal and the major institutes state. The official correction window lets you re-upload the photo and signature (and change test cities) after submission, but it's the only recourse — upload right the first time. One more official instruction worth heeding: the photo you upload gets affixed on your admit card on test day, so keep printed copies of the same photograph. The current notification on iimcat.ac.in is the authority if anything here disagrees.
These files identify you — face and signature, tied to your application. PixFit runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded to any server, and the re-encode strips EXIF metadata (including GPS) from phone photos as a side effect. There's no minimum size in the CAT spec, so no padding is involved — just the best-quality file that fits.