A question about the new passports?

Question

Bearing in mind all of the security features in the new passports, why do they use black and white photos - you can't even tell the colour of your eyes or your hair? - just whether your hair is dark or fair!

Answer 1

I live in the US and my daughter got a passport several years back.  Her picture was in color.

Answer 2

I have one of the new passports too.... i prefer the black and white ones...also there is a hologram of your photo too....i thought that was kinda cool!

Answer 3

hi you

the main reason is your profile shows up better on a black and white photo then colour and there was a time not to long ago that you could not get passport photos done in colour but now a days both black and white and colour will do i have a colour on mine

Answer 4

Im presuming you're talking about the new passports where you photo is printed in the page instead of the old ones where they glued on the actual photo and then covered it in plastic.

I remember asking a friend who works in printing and he told me its just cheaper to print the photo in greyscale (black and white) than colour.

So with the old type passports you sent in the photo and you could send in a black & white or colour one and they just glued it in and laminated the page.

With the new biometric ones even if you send in a colour photo the scan it and print it onto the page in black & white, according to my friend purely because its more expensive to print that way in colour especially to get high quality.

I have an old type one thats runs out next year and I dont like the new ones.

I have a friend and in her old type passports with colour you could see the difference between her and her younger sister but in the new greyscale they look the same. They could use each others passports.

I think colour is better.