Digital certificates are the equivalent of a paper certificate and contain similar information with the addition of helpful digital features. Planning what information should be included on the digital certificate in advance will simplify the design process and prevent key information being forgotten.
How to design a digital certificate that earns shares and grows your program
Most certificate programs treat design as the final step before sending. The programs with the highest share rates treat it as the first growth decision they make.
A well-designed digital certificate does more than recognize achievement. It earns referrals, builds brand awareness, and gives learners something they want to share. That distinction matters: 96% of learners say their digital credential is valuable for their career (2024 State of Credentialing), but only when they engage with and share it. Design is what determines whether they do.
This guide covers what to include on a digital certificate, how to design it for shareability as well as visual quality, and how Accredible’s Certificate Designer makes it straightforward to build credentials that work hard after they’re issued.
What should you plan before designing a digital certificate?
Consider the traditional degree design. It includes the name of the institution, the name of the student, the degree and major they studied, sign-off from authoritative bodies, and the date of the award.
This information is core to understanding who the named award belongs to, what they studied, and where they studied. This information also makes up the basis of a digital certificate - and with a purpose-built platform, you can go significantly further.
Custom branding helps identify the issuing authority at a glance. Decorative assets help certificates stand out when shared. A QR code provides an always-available live link to the hosted credential online, where employers and peers can instantly verify it without creating an account.
Before you open the designer, answer three questions:
- What does the recipient need to prove? (skills, achievement, membership, completion, the answer shapes your metadata choices)
- Where will they share it? (LinkedIn, email signature, digital portfolio, job application, each has different layout and branding implications)
- What should happen next? (re-enrollment, pathway progression, a job outcome, your credential design can actively point toward that next step)
Digital certificate templates: choosing the right starting point
Certificate templates are freely available for issuers to use as the base for their design or as a reference for creating a new design. Core attributes included in the available templates include the recipient name, the course name, the credential ID, and the date.
Accredible’s Certificate Designer provides a library of templates to choose from in different orientations and paper sizes depending on the needs of the issuer. The Accredible platform also includes a library of additional core attributes to use alongside the attributes that appear on certificate templates including:
- Issuer Name
- Course Description
- Recipient ID
- Recipient Email
- Expiry Date
Custom attributes
Custom attributes are another feature of digital certificates that automate the process of adding useful information. Custom attributes are created by the issuer to pull through uploaded data for the recipient, course, or issuer information. Examples include:
- Issuer Details
- Issuer Contact
- Recipient Contact
- Recipient Grade
- Course Tutor
- Membership Level
- Signature of Authority
Attributes make the automation of issuing credentials quick and easy. Certificates don’t need to be manually managed - spelling errors or name changes can be approved in a few clicks, without the cost of reprinting and reposting. For the IAPP, this automation saved three days of staff time per month and cut direct certificate costs by 50%. For the Digital Marketing Institute, it reduced staff time spent on certificates by 93.75%.
Note that some credential information, including skills metadata and earning criteria, lives on the hosted credential page rather than the certificate design itself. This means the visual stays clean while the full record remains accessible to anyone who views or verifies the credential.
Designing a digital certificate
The Certificate Designer available through the Accredible digital certificate platform has made it easy to create fantastic-looking digital certificates. The drag-and-drop interface is simple for beginners to use and the design tool includes visible guides for helping to position elements on the page or against additional elements in the design.
As the digital certificate acts as a representation of achievement ‘out-in-the-wild’, issuers may choose to seek the assistance of a graphic designer. If the design process is being kept in-house, here are some suggestions to ensure the digital certificate effectively represents the achievement and the issuing brand.
Sizing elements
Certain information included in the digital certificate design holds greater importance than others. For example, the name of the recipient and the name of the course are two key pieces of information. The copy used to link these elements together is of less importance. Examples of this copy include:
- “Has been awarded the achievement of”
- “Is hereby designated”
- “Has successfully completed all the requirements to be recognized as”
The linking copy and any information of low importance on digital certificates should be a smaller font size and weight (how thick or thin characters appear). This allows key information to be the focus of the certificate and should be displayed in a larger size and/or weight.
For attributes and custom attributes, the font can be set to automatically scale depending on the length of the generated information. This prevents longer names or course names getting cut off. To set automatic scaling, select the text-box of the target attribute, click ‘Size’ in the design toolbar and check the box for ‘Enable Text Scaling’.
High quality elements
Logos, decorative elements, and background images are easy to upload into the designer. All uploaded image files should be correctly sized to ensure the element appears cleanly in the design without blur or distortion. This is particularly important if issuers intend for their certificate designs to be print-ready for display or presentation.
Use the table below as a quick reference for minimum background dimensions:
It is not recommended to upload images that greatly exceed the minimum size recommendations. This can cause PDF renders to fail when a recipient downloads their certificate.
Designing for shareability, not just recognition
A certificate designed purely for print will look good in a frame. A certificate designed for sharing will grow your program.
The programs with the strongest engagement numbers share a few design principles that go beyond visual quality:
- Put your brand front and center. Your logo, your colors, your URL, not your platform vendor’s. Every credential a learner shares is a brand impression. The Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois achieved a 78% LinkedIn share rate in part because their credentials are unmistakably theirs. When organizations use Accredible’s full white-labeling, credentials carry a custom domain and zero platform co-branding. The credential page sidebar is issuer-controlled too. Use it to surface your next course, a membership offer, or any call to action you’d put on a landing page.
- Eliminate acceptance friction. 34% of people abandon an online task that asks them to create an account (Baymard Institute). Accredible’s One-Click Acceptance removes that barrier entirely. Recipients can view, claim, and share their credentials without registering. The Maker Group saw their share rate climb from under 25% to over 80% after moving to this model: “One-click share is what made us choose Accredible in the first place,” said Partner Paul Voisard.
- Design for mobile. Most credentials are opened on a phone. Test your design at small sizes, ensure the issuer logo, recipient name, and credential title are readable without zooming. Credentials shared on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Instagram render as a thumbnail first; your brand and the credential name should be legible at that scale.
- Include a clear credential title. Employers and peers scan, not read. A certificate that says “Certified Scrum Master” in clear, prominent text communicates instantly. One that buries the credential in linking copy does not.
Frogames, a Spanish-language online learning platform, introduced Accredible digital credentials with shareable design and a gamified pathway system. Their course completion rate tripled. “Since we introduced digital credentials and the gamification system, our course completion rate has improved by three times,” said co-founder Juan Gabriel Gomila Salas. Design choices that make credentials worth sharing also make them worth earning.
How does Accredible’s Certificate Designer work?
Accredible’s drag-and-drop Certificate Designer lets you build a fully branded, shareable digital certificate in minutes with no design experience required. It’s available to all account holders, and you can get started with a free trial for up to 20 unique recipients.
Accredible enables organizations to:
- Create unlimited certificate and badge designs with a drag-and-drop editor, starting from templates or uploading custom designs.
- Auto-populate custom attributes (recipient name, course title, grade, expiry date) at scale via CSV, API, or LMS integration with no manual handling.
- Issue One-Click shareable credentials that recipients can view, claim, and share to 40+ platforms without creating an account.
- Track certificate opens, shares, LinkedIn adds, and program referrals via built-in credential analytics.
- White-label the full credential experience - custom domain, branded emails, no Accredible logo anywhere in the learner journey.
- Support Open Badges 3.0 and W3C Verifiable Credentials standards, so your certificates carry embedded, employer-readable skills metadata.
The Accredible digital certificate platform is built for certification program managers, continuing education teams, and L&D leaders issuing credentials at scale, whether that’s 100 or 100,000 per year.
Ready to see how your certificate design affects engagement and sharing? Create a free trial account to explore the Certificate Designer, or book a walkthrough with our team.
Digital certificate design checklist
Before you publish, run through this list:
- Content: Recipient name, credential/course name, issuing organization, date, credential ID, and (where relevant) skills metadata and expiry date are all present.
- Branding: Your logo is prominent. Your brand colors are consistent throughout. No platform vendor branding is visible.
- Image quality: Background images meet minimum pixel dimensions for your chosen format and orientation (see table above). Elements are sharp at full size and at thumbnail scale.
- Typography hierarchy: Key information (recipient name, credential name) uses the largest text size and/or weight. Linking copy and secondary information is visibly smaller.
- Mobile readability: The credential title and issuer name are legible at thumbnail size (test at 200px wide).
- Metadata: Skill tags, earning criteria, and issuer details are populated in the platform settings and appear on the credential page, not the certificate face, so your design remains uncluttered while the full record remains verifiable.
- Sharing: One-Click Acceptance is enabled. A sample LinkedIn post is included in the credential email to prompt sharing.
- Analytics: Credential analytics are active so you can track opens, shares, and program referrals from day one.
Further reading
For step-by-step guidance on using the Accredible Certificate Designer, visit our Help Center: How to create a certificate design.
Download the Definitive Guide to Digital Certificate Design, a print-friendly planning resource that covers the full design process, from initial brief to final sign-off. It includes checklists for planning your certificate details, building the design, and reviewing for publication.
Frequently asked questions
What information should a digital certificate include?
At minimum: recipient name, credential/course name, issuing organization, date of award, and a unique credential ID. Strong programs also include skills metadata, earning criteria, expiry date (if applicable), and a QR code linking to live verification.
What’s the difference between a digital certificate and a digital badge?
Certificates are typically formal, document-style credentials: A4 or letter format, suitable for printing or framing. Badges are compact, icon-based credentials optimized for display on LinkedIn profiles, email signatures, and digital portfolios. Both can carry the same metadata and verification capabilities on Accredible.
How do I make my digital certificate more shareable?
Three design decisions drive sharing: (1) strong, recognizable issuer branding so recipients are proud to share; (2) a One-Click acceptance experience that removes account-creation friction; (3) mobile-optimized layouts so the credential renders cleanly on every device. The Maker Group’s share rate went from under 25% to 80% after switching to Accredible’s frictionless model.
What image size should I use for a digital certificate background?
For standard screen display: 1056 x 816 px (US Letter landscape) or 1123 x 794 px (A4 landscape). For high-quality print: 3418 x 2668 px and 3626 x 2598 px respectively. Avoid uploading images that greatly exceed these dimensions as oversized files can cause PDF render failures.
Can I update a digital certificate after issuing it?
Yes. Accredible supports dynamic updates: name corrections, retroactive design changes, and expiry date adjustments can be applied in a few clicks without re-issuing or reprinting. Changes propagate automatically to all issued credentials.
