Designing a professional certificate: an elements checklist

What every certificate should say

The standards for digital credentials are a useful checklist even for a printed certificate, because they list what a reader needs to know. An Open Badges 3.0 achievement, for example, has a name, a description and criteria, and the credential names its issuer and its recipient. The W3C Verifiable Credentials data model adds when the credential becomes valid and, optionally, when it stops. Translated to paper:

1. The issuing institution, by its full name, with its crest or logo.
2. The recipient, by the full name they use officially, spelled exactly.
3. The achievement: the course, programme or qualification, in the words you would defend if asked.
4. What it certifies: attendance, completion or an assessed result; hours or credits if relevant.
5. The result or distinction, if there is one: a grade, a mention such as cum laude, a pass with merit.
6. The date of the award and, if the certificate expires, the end of its validity.
7. Signatures of the people who answer for it: usually one to three, with their names and roles printed beneath.
8. A unique reference: a serial number for your records and a code for verification.
9. A way to check it: a short verification address and a QR code leading to the issuer's verification page.

Hierarchy: what the eye should find first

Readers scan a certificate in a predictable order: the recipient's name, the achievement, the issuer, then the details. Give the name the largest type, the achievement the second largest, and set the rest smaller but still comfortably legible. Keep the verification line and the QR code in a consistent place, usually a lower corner, where a checker expects them.

Use at most two typefaces: one with character for the name and the headings, one plain and readable for everything else. Decorative scripts look ceremonial but become hard to read at small sizes and for readers with low vision; see our guide to accessible certificates.

Designing for names you have not seen yet

A template designed around "Ana Silva" will break on "María de los Ángeles Fernández-Villalobos". Test every template with a long name with accents, the longest course title you offer, three signatures and a grade, before issuing. The layout should wrap or shrink text rather than let it spill over the border.

Also check both paper sizes your readers print on. A certificate laid out for A4 must still fit US Letter, and the reverse.

Colour, contrast and print

Brand colours make a certificate recognisable, but text must stay legible. WCAG 2.2, the W3C accessibility guideline, asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Light grey text on cream paper often fails. Check the design in greyscale too: many certificates end up photocopied.

Security is in the check, not the ornament

Guilloche borders, seals and watermarks make a certificate look official, and they slow down a casual forger. But anything a reader can see, a skilled forger can reproduce. The feature that cannot be copied is the check against your own records: a unique code, a verification page and a digital signature. Put the effort there, and make the verification line impossible to miss. Our guide to certificate fraud explains why.

One template, many certificates

Keep the words and the look separate. The words of a certificate are what you granted: once issued, they should never change. The look (colours, crest, layout) can improve over time. In Emitcert the words are copied into each certificate when it is granted and signed, while the design is read each time the certificate is drawn, so fixing a crooked crest improves every certificate without touching what any of them says. Each template supports up to three signatures and prints on A4 and Letter from one layout, with ten ready-made designs to start from.