How to create your first certificate design

CertSlate generates certificate PDFs automatically when training is marked as complete. The design you set up here is used every time, so a few minutes getting it right at the start saves a lot of manual work later.

Creating a new design

1. Go to Settings > Certificate Designs in the left-hand menu.
2. Click New design in the top right corner.
3. Give the design a name — this is internal, so something like “Standard Certificate” or “First Aid Level 2” is fine.

Choosing a background

You have two options for the certificate background:

System templates are the default and the fastest way to get started. CertSlate provides a set of ready-made designs — decorative borders, formal layouts, and simple styles. You pick one from the list and set your brand colour. The template is recoloured automatically to match, so you get a professional-looking result without needing any design software.

Your own upload lets you use an image you have designed yourself — a PNG or JPG exported from Canva, Word, or Photoshop. Upload it in the Backgrounds tab first, then select it when creating the design. Landscape A4 proportions work best (roughly 1920 x 1350 pixels or higher).

If you use a system template, you also choose a primary colour when setting up the design. This is the accent colour that gets applied to the template’s pattern and borders.

Orientation

Select Landscape or Portrait when creating the design. Most training certificates use landscape, but portrait works well for shorter courses or wallet-sized cards.

Placing elements on the certificate

Once the design is created, you land in the field editor. The canvas shows your certificate background at the top, with a palette of elements below it.

To add an element, either drag it from the palette onto the canvas, or click it to place it at the centre. You can then drag it into position.

The available elements are:

• Recipient Name — the staff member’s name (appears bold and larger by default)
• Course Name — pulled from the course this design is linked to
• Course Code — the short code from the course record
• Completion Date — the date training was marked complete
• Expiry Date — calculated automatically from the course expiry period
• Company Name — your training company name from your profile
• Custom text — fixed text you type yourself, such as “Awarded to” or “This certifies that”
• Company Logo — your logo from your company profile settings
• Verification QR — a scannable code linking to a public verification page (Pro plan)
• Trainer Signature — the assigned trainer’s signature or name
• Director’s Signature — your company’s director signature from profile settings
• Images — anything you have uploaded to the Images library (stamps, award symbols, etc.)

Adjusting an element

Click any element on the canvas to select it. A toolbar appears nearby with controls for:

• Font — choose from Inter, Montserrat, Lora, Playfair Display, or Cinzel
• Size — font size in points
• Bold — toggle on or off
• Align — left, centre, or right
• Colour — a colour picker for text colour

For date fields (Completion Date and Expiry Date), you can also set the format: short (15/01/2025), medium (15 Jan 2025), long (15 January 2025), full (Wednesday 15 January 2025), or month and year (January 2025). Ordinal suffixes (1st, 15th, etc.) are available too.

For logo, image, and signature elements, the toolbar shows a width control (as a percentage of the certificate width) instead.

To centre an element horizontally or vertically, use the centre buttons in the toolbar (arrows) or just drag it — snap guides appear when you are aligned with the canvas centre or with another element.

To remove an element, select it and click the small red × that appears, or use the Remove button in the style panel below the canvas.

Alignment guides

When you drag an element, blue guide lines appear automatically when it lines up with the canvas centre or with the centre of another element. Release the mouse when the guide appears to snap it into place.

Saving and linking to a course

Changes save automatically as you edit. There is no separate save step.

To use the design, go to Courses, open the course you want to link it to, and select this design from the Certificate design dropdown. From that point on, every time someone completes that course, CertSlate generates a PDF using this design.

What happens when training is completed

When you mark a booking as complete, CertSlate generates a certificate for each attendee and emails it to them. Certificates are also downloadable from the booking record and from each staff member’s profile.

Reusing a design across multiple courses

A common approach is to create a single design and link it to several courses. The Course Name field on the certificate is pulled from each individual course, so you get consistent branding with minimal setup. On the Pro plan you can create up to ten designs.