How to upload student photos and parent photos in Inkwelly
For school office staff and the admission desk — when you are admitting a new student or updating an existing record. By the end you will have a passport-size student photo and a parent photo saved in Inkwelly, ready to flow onto ID cards, marksheets, and Transfer Certificates without any extra work.
To upload a student photo in Inkwelly, open Students, then Admission for a new student or the existing student's profile, click the dashed Photo tile, pick or upload a JPG, PNG, or WebP up to 5 MB, and click Save. For a parent photo, open the Family tab on the same student, click Add parent, and use the same photo picker inside the parent details popup. In both flows the photo is saved to your school's media library and is reusable everywhere — ID card, TC, marksheet, parent app.
Every student and parent photo you upload is kept in your school's Inkwelly media library and reused on ID cards, marksheets, Transfer Certificates, and the parent app — so you upload the photo once and it shows up everywhere it is needed. CBSE Bye-Laws Chapter VI require schools to keep a passport-size photograph in the admission register for every admitted student, so getting the photo in at admission saves rework later. A 1,200-student school typically uploads 250+ photos a year between fresh admissions and updates — Inkwelly is built so that work feels routine, not painful.
1. Open the student record
For a new student, open Inkwelly, go to Students, and click Admission to start the admission form. For an existing student, open Students, search by admission number, name, or roll number, and click the row to open the student's profile. Both routes lead to the same Photo tile — admission shows it on the Student profile card at the top of the form, and the student profile shows it on the photo card at the top of the page.
2. Click the Photo tile or Edit pencil
On the admission form, click the dashed 100×100 tile in the top-left of the Student profile card — the one with the camera icon and the words Photo · Upload. On an existing student, click the small Edit pencil on the photo card at the top of the page. Either action opens Inkwelly's photo picker — the same picker used everywhere in Inkwelly, so the experience feels familiar wherever you upload photos.
3. Pick from the library or upload a new photo
The photo picker opens with two tabs. Use the Library tab to pick a photo your school has already uploaded — for example, an older sibling's photo. Use the Upload tab to drag-drop or browse for a fresh file — JPG, PNG, or WebP, up to 5 MB. Inkwelly saves the photo into your school's media library and shows a thumbnail back inside the form. Inkwelly remembers which photo you picked, not the original file — so navigating away before saving discards the selection.
4. Verify auto-crop and accepted formats
Inkwelly auto-crops every uploaded photo to a clean square so it sits cleanly in the passport-size boxes on ID cards and the admission register — no manual cropping required. Hover the thumbnail to surface the small camera button — click it to swap the photo if the face is off-centre or the crop looks tight. Inkwelly refuses files larger than 5 MB and unsupported formats (HEIC, BMP, TIFF, AVIF), and shows a clear error message with the reason so you know exactly what to fix.
5. Save the form to commit the photo
The admission and student-edit forms in Inkwelly do not autosave. The thumbnail appears in the Photo tile straight after upload, but the photo is locked into the student record only when you click Save at the bottom of the form. If you go to another page, refresh, or close the browser before saving, the photo is dropped — and the next time the form opens the Photo tile will be empty again. Always finish with Save — that is the moment the photo becomes part of the student.
6. Add a parent photo via the Family tab
Open the student's profile, switch to the Family tab, and click Add parent — or click Edit on a parent who is already listed. The parent details popup opens with the same Photo tile and photo picker. Upload or pick the parent's photo using the same JPG, PNG, or WebP rules and the 5 MB limit, then click Save inside the popup. The parent's photo then appears on the parent app login screen, the school's contact list, and any parent-facing letter or certificate.
Common pitfalls
- Uploading a file larger than 5 MB — Inkwelly rejects it with a clear error message; resize or compress the photo before retrying.
- Navigating away before clicking Save — the photo selection is lost; the form does not autosave.
- Using HEIC photos straight from an iPhone — convert to JPG first, Inkwelly does not accept HEIC.
- Uploading a low-resolution photo (under 400×400 pixels) — the version on ID cards looks blurry; aim for at least 600×600.
- Forgetting to save the parent photo popup — the thumbnail shows up but the parent record stays unchanged.
- Using a custom form that bypasses Inkwelly's photo picker — photos uploaded that way will not reach your school's media library, so the photo picker is the only path that works.
What to do next: if the photo is going onto a Transfer Certificate, head to How to issue a Transfer Certificate in an Indian school — Inkwelly pulls the same photo straight onto the TC PDF. If you are batch-importing photos for an entire class from an old ERP export, use bulk update for student records to map photo URLs in one CSV pass. For new admissions where the parent photo is missing, see single admission for the full prerequisite flow.
Set photos up the right way from day one
Inkwelly's onboarding team configures your school's media library, walks the admission desk through the photo picker, and runs a live photo upload on your school's data during the demo.
Frequently asked
7 questionsWhat size and format does Inkwelly accept for student photos?
Inkwelly accepts JPG, PNG, and WebP files up to 5 MB per photo. HEIC, BMP, TIFF, and AVIF are not accepted — convert iPhone HEIC photos to JPG before uploading. Inkwelly auto-crops the photo to a clean square so it fits the passport-size boxes on ID cards and the admission register without any manual cropping.
Can I update a parent photo later in Inkwelly?
Yes. Open the student's profile, switch to the Family tab, click Edit on the parent row, and use the photo picker inside the parent details popup to swap the photo. Click Save inside the popup. The new photo flows to the parent app login screen, the school's contact list, and any parent-facing letter or certificate on the next page load.
What happens if I navigate away before saving?
The photo selection is lost. Inkwelly's admission and student-edit forms do not autosave — even though the thumbnail appears in the Photo tile straight after upload, the photo is committed to the student record only when you click Save. A refresh, a tab close, or a back-button before Save resets the Photo tile to empty.
Can I upload photos in bulk for the whole class?
Yes, via Inkwelly's bulk update for student records. Export your existing students to CSV, fill the photo URL column with hosted image links, and re-import. Inkwelly fetches each URL, saves the file in your school's media library, and attaches it to the right student. Useful when migrating from an old ERP that exposed photo URLs.
Inkwelly me bachche ki photo kaise upload kare?
Students module kholiye, fir Admission form ya pehle se enrolled student ka detail page kholiye. Top-left ka dashed Photo tile click kijiye — photo picker khul jayega. JPG, PNG, ya WebP file (5 MB tak) upload kijiye, ya school ki media library se pehle se uploaded photo chuniye. Form ke neeche Save button dabaiye — photo student record mein save ho jayegi.
Why does the photo on the ID card look blurry?
Low source resolution. Inkwelly serves an optimised version for ID-card sizes, but it cannot add detail that was not in the original photo. Aim for at least 600×600 pixels — passport scans at 300 DPI work well. If the photo was a screenshot or a thumbnail, re-shoot or re-scan it and re-upload via the photo picker.
Do I need a special permission to upload student photos?
Anyone with permission to edit a student or parent record can upload a photo — typically the admission office, the school admin, or the principal. Your school's media library is shared across the team, so once a photo is uploaded it is reusable everywhere. The Inkwelly onboarding team sets the media library up once during onboarding, and after that every admission desk user can upload.
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2 readsSources & references
- CBSE Affiliation Bye-Laws — Chapter VI (School Records) · accessed 7 May 2026
Mandates a passport-size photograph in the admission register for every CBSE-affiliated school's admitted student.
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 — Section 9 (Children's data) · accessed 7 May 2026
Governs verifiable parental consent and processing safeguards for personal data of minors, including photographs stored in school records.
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