Design a print-ready certificate — borders, signatures, QR — free in your browser
| Paper | Millimeters | PDF points (1 pt = 1/72 in) | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| A4 landscape | 297 × 210 | 841.89 × 595.28 | The international default for certificates |
| US Letter landscape | 279.4 × 215.9 | 792 × 612 | North America (8.5 × 11 in) |
| A5 landscape | 210 × 148.5 | 595.28 × 420.94 | Compact awards, gift certificates |
| A3 landscape | 420 × 297 | 1190.55 × 841.89 | Oversized display certificates |
| US Legal landscape | 355.6 × 215.9 | 1008 × 612 | Rare; when a binder dictates (14 × 8.5 in) |
This tool's default layout sits on a 12 mm safety margin with a 2.5 pt outer border and 0.75 pt inner rule 4.5 mm inside it — comfortably inside every printer's unprintable zone (typically 3-5 mm). Point conversions above are exact: 1 inch = 25.4 mm = 72 points.
A certificate is a layout problem more than a content problem: centered hierarchy, a border with breathing room, and signature blocks that line up. This tool starts you from a classic layout and generates a true vector PDF, so text stays sharp whether the file is printed at A4 or blown up for framing.
Rendering is pdfme (MIT, the open-source PDF template engine) running entirely in your browser. The form builds a template — 17 elements: two border rectangles, two signature rules, thirteen text blocks with deliberate sizes (44 pt title with letter-spacing, 30 pt name, 22 pt course, 11 pt connective lines, 8 pt titles under the signature rules) — and the generator writes the PDF at exact paper dimensions. The optional visual editor is pdfme's Designer: drag elements, add a logo image, a drawn signature, or a QR code for verification, then download; the layout in the editor is the layout in the file. First use loads about 1.5 MB of engine (4-6 MB with the editor), cached afterwards.
Take the default certificate on A4 landscape. The page is 297 × 210 mm, which converts to 841.89 × 595.28 PDF points (1 pt = 1/72 inch, 1 inch = 25.4 mm — node-verified arithmetic). The outer border rectangle spans 273 × 186 mm — 773.86 × 527.24 points — inset 12 mm on every side, with the thin inner rule 4.5 mm further in (12.76 points). The heading occupies a 217 mm-wide centered band at 44 pt; the recipient's name gets 30 pt across a 237 mm band. Generated from the form defaults, the result is a one-page, 8,103-byte PDF with genuine selectable text; the same layout in the gold accent renders 8,104 bytes. At Letter landscape the uniform scale factor is 0.9407 (279.4 ÷ 297), giving 792 × 612 points with the layout centered.
Fill in the fields on this page — organization, recipient name, course or achievement, date, two signers — pick an accent color, and hit Download PDF. The certificate (double border, centered typography, signature rules) renders at print quality with no watermark, no signup and no upload. The visual editor is optional if you want to drag elements or add a logo.
A4 landscape is the standard for certificates in most of the world: 297 × 210 mm, which is 841.89 × 595.28 points in PDF units. US Letter landscape (279.4 × 215.9 mm = 792 × 612 points) is the North American equivalent, and this tool offers both. Print shops accept either; what matters is keeping every element inside a roughly 12 mm margin so no printer clips it.
Yes. Open the visual editor, add a barcode element from the left sidebar, choose QR code, and point it at a verification URL — a course platform profile, a register page, or any link that confirms the award. Course platforms that issue certificates with verifiable IDs pair well with this: put the ID in the certificate footer and the QR code beside it.
Both, in the visual editor. The image element accepts a PNG or JPG logo (drop it top-center), and the signature element lets signers draw or upload their signature. Elements can be dragged, resized and recolored; the layout you see in the editor is exactly what the PDF contains.
Yes. The PDF is generated at exact paper dimensions with vector text and rules — it prints crisp at any size and scales cleanly for professional printing. In testing, the default design produced a single-page, 8,103-byte PDF with text as real selectable text (not an image), which is also what screen readers and search see.
Yes and yes. There is no watermark, no per-certificate fee and no account, because the whole design tool runs in your browser (pdfme, MIT-licensed, does the rendering). Certificates you generate are your documents — fine for courses, workshops, training records and client deliverables. The software's open-source license does not restrict what you make with it.