Short answer: a good certificate template has six lines of text and a clear order of importance. The recipient's name is the biggest thing on the page. Then the title of the certificate, the reason it was given, the issuing organisation, the date, and one or two signatures. Add a certificate ID or QR code if anyone will need to check it later.
Pick the type first (completion, award, recognition, participation or training), because the type decides the wording. This guide gives you the wording for each one, ready to copy, then the layout and paper-size choices, and how to make one certificate per person from a list instead of typing names one at a time.
The parts every certificate needs
Whatever the occasion, the same parts appear in the same order:
| Part | What it says | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Title | What kind of certificate this is | Certificate of Completion |
| Presentation line | A short link from title to name | This certifies that |
| Recipient | The person's full name, spelled the way they spell it | Amara Okafor |
| Reason (citation) | What they did to earn it | has completed the two-day Data Foundations workshop |
| Issuer | The organisation, and the event or programme if it has its own name | Northfield Learning Centre |
| Date and signatures | When it was issued and who stands behind it | 5 November 2026 · Jane Mills, Programme Lead |
Two optional parts are worth adding when they apply:
- A certificate ID, such as
NLC-2026-0142. It lets you find the record when someone asks, and it lets the recipient quote it on a CV or application. - A QR code that points to a page on your own site showing who the certificate was issued to. That's how an employer or school checks it's real without emailing you.
Seals, ribbons, borders and logos are decoration. They should never compete with the name.
Certificate types and the wording for each
The title and the citation are where the types differ. Here's what each one needs, with lines you can copy and change.
Certificate of completion
For a course, workshop, programme or onboarding track. The citation names the thing completed and, when it matters, how long it took.
Certificate of Completion
This certifies that Name has successfully completed Course name, a 12-hour / two-day / six-week programme delivered by Organisation.
A shorter version for a single session:
Certificate of Completion
Awarded to Name for completing the Workshop name workshop on date.
If you want a ready layout, the workshop certificate of completion template is landscape, with the name, course and date already set up as fields you can type into.
Award and achievement certificate
For a competition, a top score or a milestone. The citation should say exactly what was achieved, because "for excellence" on its own tells the reader nothing.
Certificate of Achievement
Presented to Name in recognition of finishing first in the regional robotics challenge / scoring 98% in the final assessment / reaching 1,000 volunteer hours.
Name the award in the title when it has one ("Best Newcomer 2026").
Employee recognition certificate
For employee of the month, a work anniversary, a project delivered or a value someone lived out. Recognition works best when it's specific and personal, so the citation should say what the person actually did.
Employee of the Month
Name, Team
For rebuilding the onboarding checklist that cut new-starter questions in half / covering three roles during the spring launch.
Month Year · Manager name, Title
Certificate of Appreciation
With thanks to Name for five years of service / leading the office move / mentoring our first apprentices.
Certificate of participation
For a conference, hackathon, sports day or volunteering event, where everyone who took part receives one. The citation states attendance, not ranking.
Certificate of Participation
This is to certify that Name took part in Event name, held at Venue on date.
These come in the largest numbers, so they're the type most worth automating.
Training and CPD certificate
For professional training where the hours count towards a requirement. Add the details a reviewer needs to log the activity: hours, format and the trainer.
Certificate of Training
Name has completed Course name (X CPD hours), delivered online / in person by Trainer name on date.
Certificate ID: ID
A certificate records what happened. Whether those hours count towards a particular professional body's requirement is that body's decision, so check its rules before you print the hours on the page.
Layout tips that make a certificate look right
Get the hierarchy right
From across the room you should see, in order:
- The recipient's name, largest, often in a serif or script face.
- The title, second, in capitals or a heavier weight.
- The citation, in a plain, readable body size.
- Issuer, date and signatures, smallest, along the bottom.
If the logo or the word "Certificate" is bigger than the name, swap them. The person holding it cares about their name first.
Leave room for long names. Test the layout with the longest name on your list (or something like "Maria Fernanda Castellanos-Whitfield") before you approve it. A name that wraps onto two lines or shrinks to fit is the most common layout failure on certificates.
Landscape or portrait
Landscape is the traditional certificate shape. It gives a long name room on one line and fits a frame on a wall. Use it for completion, award and participation certificates.
Portrait suits certificates that carry more text, such as a training record with a module list, or a document that will sit in a file next to other A4 or Letter pages.
A4 or US Letter
Design at the paper size you'll print on. A4 (210 × 297 mm) is standard in most of the world; US Letter (8.5 × 11 in) in the US and Canada. They're close but not the same shape, so a layout made for one can crop or leave gaps on the other. If your recipients are in both regions, keep a generous margin (about 15 mm) so the design survives either.
Print, PDF or email
- For printing, export a PDF and keep text away from the edges; many office printers can't print to the edge.
- For email, a PDF is still best: it opens the same everywhere and recipients can print it themselves.
- For sharing online, a PNG is easier to post on a profile or feed. Many people want both.
Issuing many certificates from a list
Filling in one certificate by hand is fine. Filling in 80 is where mistakes creep in: a misspelled name, last week's date, a file saved over another.
The fix is to separate the design from the data. You design the certificate once and mark the parts that change (name, course, date, ID) as fields. Then you keep the names in a spreadsheet, one row per person, with a header row that matches the field names:
| recipient | course | issuedOn | certificateId |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amara Okafor | Data Foundations | 5 November 2026 | NLC-2026-0142 |
| Tom Becker | Data Foundations | 5 November 2026 | NLC-2026-0143 |
Export the sheet from Excel or Google Sheets as a CSV, and a certificate generator turns each row into its own file. In bannx, a bulk run takes up to 500 rows per run and returns one PDF per row in a ZIP, each file named after the person. If you spot a typo, fix the cell and run it again. Bulk runs are on paid plans; the full walkthrough is on the bulk certificates page.
Two other ways to hand them out:
- Let people make their own. A shareable form puts the certificate's fields on your own site. Each attendee types their name and downloads their certificate, with no account.
- Issue them from your own system. If certificates should appear the moment someone finishes a course, a developer can call an API instead. That's covered step by step in our certificate generator API guide, including QR codes for verification, and the PDF generation API page has the overview.
Where to find a certificate template
Start from a layout close to what you need and change the words. The certificate templates category collects the certificate designs, and the education templates category has related course and classroom designs.
In bannx, templates are free to edit and download as PNG or PDF, with no account and no watermark. A good first step is the workshop certificate of completion: open it, type the recipient's name, course and date, and download the PDF. When you need a whole list, the same design runs from your spreadsheet.
FAQ
What should be written on a certificate of completion?
The title ("Certificate of Completion"), the recipient's full name, the course or programme completed, the issuing organisation, the date and a signature. Add the course length or hours if the recipient might need to show them to someone else, and a certificate ID if you keep records.
What's the difference between a certificate of completion and a certificate of achievement?
A completion certificate says someone finished something: a course, a workshop, a programme. An achievement or award certificate says they did something better than expected or better than others, so its citation names the result. If everyone who finished gets one, it's a completion certificate.
Can I make certificates from an Excel list?
Yes. Put one person per row with a header row that names each field (recipient, course, date), save the sheet as a CSV, and run it through a certificate generator that supports bulk runs. You get one file per row instead of copying names into a template one by one.
Should a certificate be landscape or portrait?
Landscape is the usual choice for completion, award and participation certificates, because a long name fits on one line and it frames well. Portrait works better when the certificate carries more text, such as a list of modules or training hours.
How do I stop people faking a certificate I issued?
Give each certificate a unique ID and a QR code that links to a page on your own site listing who it was issued to. Anyone checking it scans the code and compares the name. The record on your site is what proves it, not the paper.