Certificates sit beside the badge, the welcome letter and the thank-you card. We design the set from one brief, so the training provider, the college or the club looks like one organisation at every step. Name badges, cards and letterheads each have a page, and print design lists the rest.
Certificate design
Worth framing, hard to fake.
Certificate design decides whether a sheet goes in a drawer or up on a wall. We design certificates and awards that look earned.
Kinds
Which certificates do you need?
Training
Course and training certificates
Completion, attendance and competence certificates for training providers and colleges, with space for the date, the trainer and a number.
Awards
Awards and recognition
Employee of the month, long service, sports and school awards. Heavier stock, a seal and a signature line make them worth keeping.
Members
Membership and accreditation
Professional bodies, associations and clubs. Often reissued each year, so the design takes a new year and grade without a redesign.
Formal
Share and company certificates
Laid out from wording your lawyer or company secretary supplies. We design the document; they confirm what it must say.
Sizes
Certificate sizes, paper and finishes
Uncoated paper takes a fountain-pen signature and a rubber stamp; coated stock does not. If the certificates will be personalised in your own printer, the stock has to pass through it, so we check the weight before we recommend it.
| Item | Size or option | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A4 | 210 × 297 mm, upright or wide | The UK and South African standard; fits an A4 frame and a C4 envelope |
| US Letter | 8.5 × 11 in | The US standard; fits a Letter document frame |
| A5 or half Letter | 148 × 210 mm; 5.5 × 8.5 in | Children’s awards and workshop attendance |
| A3 | 297 × 420 mm | Display certificates for a reception wall |
| Paper | 250 to 350 gsm; 90 to 110 lb cover | Linen, laid, parchment-effect or smooth uncoated |
| Finishes | Foil, embossing, spot colour, numbering | A foiled seal or an embossed crest is the hardest part to copy |
Security
What makes a certificate hard to copy?
Detail that cheap print cannot reproduce. A fine guilloché border, the pattern on banknotes, a foiled or embossed seal, a serial number and a signature in real ink each raise the bar. A QR code pointing to a verification page raises it further, because anyone can check the certificate in seconds.
Keep the layout calm. One typeface for the name, set large, and one for the rest; generous margins; the awarding body’s name and logo at the top; the date, signatures and number at the foot. The recipient’s name is the biggest thing on the page, because that is why they keep it.
Included
What comes with a certificate design
- Print-ready PDFWith 3 mm bleed (0.125 in for US printers), CMYK, and the foil or emboss areas on their own layer for the finisher.
- A fillable versionA PDF with fields for the name, date and number, so you type and print one at a time. More on fillable PDF forms.
- A mail-merge versionA Word or data-merge file that pulls names from a spreadsheet for a whole cohort at once.
- A digital certificateA PDF for email and an image sized to be shared on LinkedIn, in the same design.
- Editable source filesYours, so next year’s dates and grades are a text change.
Print & design
Related services
Questions
Questions about certificate design
Question not here? Send it to us and we will answer it directly.
Ask a questionHow do we order certificate design?
Email hello@redfoxbranding.com or fill in the project form with the kind of certificate, the size, the wording and how many people will receive one. We send a fixed quote in GBP, USD or ZAR. If you have an existing certificate, a photo of it tells us what to keep and what to improve.
Can we fill in the names ourselves?
Yes. For a handful, a fillable PDF with name, date and number fields is simplest. For a whole intake, a mail-merge version pulls names and grades from your spreadsheet. If you prefer handwritten names, we leave a calligraphy line on uncoated stock, and in every case we set the name field so a long name still fits.
Can you design an award certificate with a seal?
Yes. A seal can be printed, foiled, embossed or added as a gold wafer sticker on top of the print. Foil and embossing need a die from your printer, so they suit a stock you print in bulk and personalise later, while a printed seal suits one-off awards. We design the seal to match your logo and place it where a frame mount will not cover it.
What should a share or company certificate say?
That is for your lawyer, company secretary or accountant to settle, because the wording is set by the Companies Act in each country. We design the certificate around their wording, with the number, the holder’s details and the signatures in the right places, and supply a numbered template. We do not give legal advice.
Awarding a lot of people?
Get a quote for certificate design
Tell us who the certificate is for, the size, the wording, how the names will be added (printed, typed or handwritten) and roughly how many you will issue a year. You get a fixed quote and a list of the files you will receive. That is all it takes to start your certificate design.