How Do I Create a Certificate Design?

Creating a beautiful certificate design is the first step to creating digital certificates.

This is a long article, so if you want to shortcut all the reading, here's a video overview: 

Edit an Existing Design

Click on 'Designs' at the top of your Accredible Dashboard. You will then see in the Designs overview all of the certificate designs that you currently have.

Hover your mouse over the design you would like to edit, and two icons will appear; a pencil and garbage can. Click on the pencil icon to edit this design.

Open the Certificate Designer

  1. Click on 'Designs' at the top of your Accredible Dashboard
  2. If your account is new, this section will appear empty, but that will soon change as you go about creating beautiful designs for your certificates!
  3. Click on the 'Create Certificate Design' button at the top right-hand corner of the page. This will open the Certificate Designer.

'My Designs' - Copy an Existing Certificate Design

If you have created or used any designs already, you can use these as a template for a new design. By clicking on any of the templates in the 'My Designs' tab, you copy that original and then edit the copy. This is a great way of being able to create lots of similar-looking designs with minor variations quickly.

Using a Template

There are over 40 templates to choose from, and they are a great way to get started without having to devote too much time and effort to create a design from scratch.

  1. In the left-hand sidebar menu, click on the 'Templates' tab. You will then see all of the templates that Accredible has pre-made for you, arranged into size and orientation.
  2. Select a template of your choosing under the orientation you want to use.

Screenshot 2019-09-11 at 17.18.55

Uploading Your Own Design

If you already have a certificate background image that is beautifully designed and branded, you can absolutely upload your own design. Ensure that the image you want to upload is the correct size and orientation for the certificate design you are using. Our article to help you with this is here: Recommended Certificate Background Image Sizes.

 

Important Note: Don't be tempted to upload a massive background image because you think the added number of pixels will make your certificate look better. The truth is there won't be much of a difference in image quality, your certificates will always take longer to load onto any webpage, and you run the risk of the PDF render crashing and failing if your recipient wants to download their certificate. Trust us on this one. It's not worth it.

 

To upload the image, go to the 'Document' tab, use the 'Upload New Image' button and select the image you wish to use. 

Adding Attributes

If you are unfamiliar with attributes, click here to find out more about what they do.

Templates come with the main attributes you will need already placed on the design, namely the recipient name, the course name, the credential ID, and the issue date.

If you wish to add another attribute onto your design, such as the Expiry Date attribute:

  1. Click on the 'Attributes' tab on the left-hand sidebar menu.
  2. In the list of attributes, click on 'Expiry Date,' and it will be dropped into the top left-hand corner of your design.
  3. Drag and drop the attribute to anywhere you like on the design.

The Attribute List will tell you when an attribute is already in use on your design, so you don't accidentally get the same one twice!

attribute

Formatting the Text

You can easily format the text within the design so that it matches your brand colors or font. To do this, select a text element. When you do so, you will see that new options appear in the toolbar above. Using these, you can change the color, change the font, change the size, center the text, and access other useful formatting tools.

Remember, you can also edit the text appearance of the attributes so that when they populate with the relevant information, they will appear in the size and style that you want.

 

Important Note: Some of your recipients or courses may have very long names and risk running outside of their text box and overlapping other information on your certificate. Make sure to enable 'Text Scaling' on these attributes. That way, no matter how long the name is, it will be re-sized to fit inside the textbox boundaries.

 

1. Select the textbox you wish to text scale.

2. Click the 'Size' button at the top of the designer.

3. In the tool that appears, under Auto-Scaling, check the box that says 'Enable text scaling.'

 

text formatting-1

Elements

Add an Image

  1. Click the 'Elements' tab in the left-hand sidebar menu.
  2. Use the 'Upload New Image' button to select the desired image from your computer. It will then appear on the design. (You can also drag and drop the image file onto the design when the 'Elements' tab is open.)
  3. Drag to resize and place your image wherever you like on your design.

Add Your Logo

You can add your logo to the template design.

  1. Click the 'Elements' tab in the left-hand sidebar menu.
  2. Use the 'Upload New Image' button to select the desired logo from your computer. It will then appear on the design. (You can also drag and drop the desired image onto the design when the 'Elements' tab is open.)
  3. Drag to resize and place your logo wherever you like on your design.

Add a Signature

Adding a signature of a company stakeholder to the certificate gives gravitas and validity to the certificate. 

If you don't already have a digital version of the certificate:

  1. Sign the signature on white paper using a dark-colored pen
  2. Scan or photograph the signature and save the file to your computer.
  3. Crop the signature image to remove as much of the excess space around the signature as possible.
  4. Add the signature image into the certificate design just like you did with the logo. 

Don’t forget to delete John Doe’s signature!

Add Line Shapes

Drop simple line shapes into your design which can then recolor, resize and adjust the style.

Add a QR Code to Your Design

If your recipients print out their certificate, it then becomes harder to verify. Well, not anymore! If you add a QR to your design, any stakeholder wanting to check the validity of the hardcopy certificate can scan the QR and be taken straight to the digital version.

  1. Click on the QR tab in the left-hand sidebar menu.
  2. Click the 'Add QR Code' button to drop in a generic QR Code image.
  3. Drag and drop the QR Code to where ever you would like it to sit on your design. You can even resize and change the color to better match your branding.

When the certificates are published, the generic QR Code image will be replaced with a unique QR Code for each certificate.

Screenshot 2019-09-11 at 17.30.03

Resize or Reorientate your Design

You may decide halfway through that you would prefer your design to be a different orientation, or you realized that it should be in US-Letter size, not A4. No problem.

Go to the 'Document' tab in the left-hand sidebar menu and select which size or orientation you would prefer your design to be. If you have used one of Accredible's premade templates, the design will resize automatically. However, if you have used your own background image, you will need to upload a new version of your background image with the new dimensions.

High-Quality Printing

If you want your certificates to look particularly spectacular when printed, make sure to check the 'Enable HQ PDF for printing' box in the 'Document' tab. A background image of 3418 x 2668 pixels is required for HQ PDF production.

Name & Save Your Design 

Add a name for your certificate design in the box at the top of the page. Then, when you’re happy with how it looks, hit 'Save and Close.'

Screenshot 2019-09-11 at 17.33.10

 

Now that your certificate design is ready, you can move on to create a group. Check out our article here to find out how: How Do I Create a Group?

If you would like to design a badge to issue alongside your certificate, you can check out our article here: How Do I Create a Badge Design?

Has this article helped you? Let us know!

If you would like to tell us about any improvements you feel could be made to this page, you can email us at support@accredible.com.