What size/quality photo do you *actually* need for a Navigo Découverte card?

[CrieffBobsledTeam]

Question as above really for anyone who likes things short and to the point but more detail as follows:

Planning a trip to Paris in the near future, it’s absolutely ages since I’ve been so I’ve spent some time researching practicalities. As we’re arriving on a Monday it works out perfectly to get Navigo Découverte cards for a weekly pass. However, I’ve seen conflicting advice regarding the photo requirements. Almost all the English sites - blogs, trip advisor etc - focus on the required size (3x2.5cm) but then go on to say you can use any photo as long as it’s the correct size with such comments as “I photocopied my driving licence photo” “I printed out a family photo and cut my head out” “I scanned and resized my passport photo”. So it all seemed quite easy, but on the Navigo website the conditions of use for the ND (www.navigo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20120912_-_cgu_carte_navigo_decouverte.pdf) seem to contradict that, stating they must be unused, not scanned, not photocopied and making no mention whatsoever of the size.

I want to be prepared when we go, rather than ending up spending another €20 on photo booths, and we all have spare passport photos, but if the size requirements I’ve read are correct they’d be no good since we’d have to cut the sides of our face off to size them down. Equally I could print out some smaller pictures but would they be acceptable? Frustratingly my google attempts at getting information in French are proving fruitless.

Anyone been recently and have experience of this?

From parisbytrain.com/paris-train-metro-week-pass-navigo-decouverte/

You can buy a Navigo Découverte pass at nearly any Metro, RER, Transilien train ticket window that normally sells tickets and passes. (I say “nearly” because a ticket window may run out of blank Navigo passes to sell you.) You’ll need a smaller than passport size photo to be used on the pass (exact Navigo Decouverte photo size is 3cm tall by 2.5cm wide), plus a pen to write your name.

There’s nearly always a photo booth nearby ticket windows at major stations, costing 5€ for a set of four pictures, so be sure to get your photo taken before going to the ticket window where they’ll likely have scissors handy for trimming your freshly minted photo on the pass. If you’re hesitant in how to ask to buy the pass at a ticket window, try printing out this page and showing the ticket seller the image of the Découverte card on the top right while holding up your small headshot photo. I’m pretty sure the ticket seller will get the idea.

The downside of the pass is its timing. The pass validity starts on Monday morning, first service (usually around 05:30) and ends the following Sunday at last service (metro trains usually arrive at their terminus station around 01:40). If you happen to be arriving mid-week, it may not make financial sense to purchase the pass. After Wednesday midnight, you cannot add zones to the pass for the current week. From Friday onwards you can only purchase zones for the following week.

Thanks Attila - I’ve seen similar information and I do feel in general that taking passport photos with us (possibly even pre-trimmed) is probably the best idea, I’m just confused as to why there’s no mention of size on the actual Navigo page.