The 2026 Certificate Printing Guide: How to Print Certificate?

Printing certificates should be the final, easy step. In reality, it’s often where problems appear. Cut-off designs, wrong margins, and poor paper quality can quickly ruin an otherwise great certificate.

This guide shows how to print certificates correctly, whether you’re printing at home, using a printing service, or ordering professionally printed certificates directly through Certifier.

You’ll learn how to avoid common printing mistakes and choose the option that fits your needs best. If you want a reliable way to design, issue, and print certificates from one place, Certifier makes the entire process simple.

What to remember before certificate printing online?

Printing certificates is not that complicated. However, there are elements you need to keep in mind. Otherwise, the end result of the certificate can change drastically. Unfortunately, for the worse.

Here are a couple of points you need to check:

Go for a printable certificate design

The printable design of certificates is a key aspect, whether your document is a piece of paper or in a PDF version. Therefore, it is important to decide if you use free printable certificates or bet on your own selection of elements.

Ensure the printable design is clear and not cluttered so that the pieces don't create chaos but simply form a cohesive whole.

Choose proper fonts for your custom certificates

Not every font looks good on printed paper. What looks great on an online project may turn out to be a bad choice on a physical document. To be sure that your chosen font looks good, create a sample document where you use different certificate fonts and see which one looks better.

Check up on colors

Unfortunately, color printing can vary when printed. For example, you may find that primary colors and even background colors are actually different in reality than in a computer.

Print a sample document and make sure it looks the way you expected it to. Also, remember to select CMYK colors instead of those RGB.

Mind the borders

You'd better remember the certificate borders because otherwise, if the paper in the printer moves, you could cut off vital parts of the artwork.

So, instead, move all essential elements, such as the logo or the recipient's name, to the “safe zone.” This means away from the edges of the printable design to avoid such a situation.

Decide on the format of your printable design

Think about what format you want to save your project in, as it makes a huge difference to the resolution of the whole file. Distinctive certificates are high-quality and have flawless resolution.

So, when betting on actual documents, you need to verify that the printer you are using will give you such a prepared copy. With digital certificates, you know you don't have to worry about that.

Make sure you use the right type of certificate paper

You also need to determine the type of certificate printing paper you want to use for your beautiful certificates. The type and paper thickness greatly affect the final experience. So if you plan to print certificates, invest in the right and attractive certificate paper, not the cheapest one.

Not sure how to print on certificate paper? Nearly the same as on the regular paper. Just choose the right settings and load the paper properly. For a more polished look, consider using custom certificate printing services.

Select the paper size

Standard size certificate paper includes Letter size (8.5 x 11 inches) and A4 size (210mm x 297mm). Popular are both orientation paper options – landscape and portrait.

Choose the one that suits your design, but always double-check your printer settings to ensure you've selected the correct format before you print certificates.

Double-check printing setup

Set up your printer's options accordingly if you are not using a third-party service provider. Configure the default settings, choose high-quality printing, check the amount of ink, and ensure the paper is well aligned. Then, run a test print and make sure everything is in order.

However, if you don't have the right equipment, rely on a certificate printing service that provide various custom certificate printing services.

The good news! When you pick Certifier certificate maker you don’t have to worry about all the aspects regarding design and format – all the templates are print-ready, so nothing will turn out differently than expected. Printing a certificate with this tool requires only two things: certificate paper and a printer.

5 Steps to print certificates

If you are aware of all elements mentioned above, you are ready to certificate printing.

How to print certificates?

01 Select document size and shape

02 Design your certificate

03 Fill out the document

04 Download your certificate

05 Prepare your printer and print your document

01 Select document size and shape

The first thing you need to do is to determine the certificate size. Before creating anything, you should figure out how your document should look.

Will it be better to be vertical or horizontal?

What about its size?

The most common paper size is a US letter, which looks like an A4, or something smaller, such as an A6. But it doesn’t mean you can’t use another size certificate. The same applies to certificate shapes.

02 Design your certificate

If you finally know what your certificate file will look like, you can start designing. Let your imagination be your guide and make the best certificate design. At this stage, it is important if you choose ready-made templates or if you just want to build a layout by yourself.

Wondering how to design a digital certificate? Templates are a good option if you don’t have much time for designing and producing certificate awards or you simply don’t have experience creating certificates and feel better when using pre-designed templates.

On the other hand, nowadays, many drag-and-drop certificate generators have so many basic and advanced features that creating digital credentials is a simple and easy task. For example, you can take advantage of customizable text, fonts, many other customizable attributes, or even foreground images.

Check out free certificate templates designed by experts

03 Fill out the document

Now, it’s high time for you to customize each certificate so it will be tailored to your recipients. This step contains changing recipients’ names, or other crucial information, like issuing dates or newly acquired skills.

Tip! Certifier provides dynamic attributes. Attributes in certificate templates act as custom fields for dynamic information. For example, [recipient.name] will be replaced with the recipient's name when generating a certificate. This enables the use of one single template for multiple certification series, automatically inserting the recipient's name into each one.

Remember the key areas when designing certificates for print. The trim line, bleed area, and safety margin help ensure your certificate prints cleanly, without cut-offs or missing details. Knowing where each area starts and ends keeps important content safe and backgrounds looking seamless.

04 Download your certificate

As soon as you have designed and filled out the document with recipients' data, you should check if everything is in order. If so, you are ready to download the file on your computer.

For home printing, save your file as PDF so no elements on the certificate can be moved. Be sure to keep it in a prominent place where you will be able to find it later for certificate printing.

Just an example that saving certificates from the Certifier dashboard are effortless.

05 Prepare your printer and print your document

If you have followed the above steps, it comes out that you are almost ready to print your certificate. Almost, because now it's time to set up the printer correctly.

As we said before, check out the default settings, such as what paper format is set, whether the highest print quality is enabled, etc. Also, examine the certificate printing paper – is it well placed, and do you have enough of it? Print a test page and make any corrections. Then print your files and let the ink dry.

Read our article on how to create and issue certificates in bulk using Certifier.

However, if you are unsure if the settings are correct, ask for help from someone qualified, such as a graphic designer, or have this work done by professionals.

Professional certificate printing built into Certifier

If you’re wondering how to print certificates without dealing with margins, paper quality, or printer settings, Certifier now offers built-in professional certificate printing.

Instead of figuring out how to print certificates at home or searching where to print certificates through external services, you can order printed certificates directly inside Certifier. Everything happens in one place, with no redirects and no extra tools.

How it works

Select the certificate you want to print

Order printed copies directly from the Certifier dashboard

Certificates are printed, packed, and delivered to your recipient

Romove the guesswork from how to print a certificate and ensures the final result looks exactly as designed.

What you get

High-quality printed certificates: Printed in A4 size (21 × 29.7 cm) on premium 330 gsm gloss-coated paper for a professional look and feel.

Frame-ready finish: Ideal for displaying on walls, desks, or shelves. Fits standard frames and document holders.

Carefully packed for protection: Shipped flat in a sturdy cardboard envelope to prevent bends or creases.

Delivery in 5–14 business days: Includes a tracking link so recipients know exactly when to expect delivery.

100% happiness guarantee: If a certificate arrives damaged, misprinted, or not as expected, it will be reprinted for free. A refund is also available if preferred.

Carbon-offset shipping: Certifier offsets carbon emissions from printing, packaging, and shipping.

Why choose built-in printing

No manual printer setup

No formatting or cut-off issues

No need to decide where to print certificates

One consistent, professional result every time

Whether you usually print certificates at home or outsource printing, Certifier gives you a simpler and more reliable option. Recipients can frame their certificates, gift copies, or archive them safely, without extra work on your side.

Think of our Planet before certificate printing

Before you decide if you want to print all your certificates, think twice about it. Is it a sensible idea?

We mean, if your client asks you to print the credentials because they care about this aspect, you should fulfill their request.

However, printing certificates is quite an expensive idea. Meanwhile, digital certificates cost you less as they can be done at no cost, actually. Many certificate makers are for free or provide you with attractive pricing plans. You can use really great software and pay only a little for it.

What’s more, digital certificates can be issued much faster than when sending them via regular mail. For example, when sending award certificates with traditional mail, your recipients wait for them for a relatively long time.

Imagine a situation where your recipients want their awards immediately. Unfortunately, you can’t speed up a postman's work, so you can only address a certificate and hope it will meet its owner. In the meantime, sending digital certificates via email lasts… how long? A few seconds?

Want to know more on sending certificates through email? Read our comprehensive guide.

Additionally, when issuing digital certificates, you can get many marketing insights and analytics about your issued certificates. For example, with Certifier, you are able to check if a recipient opened an email with a certificate, opened a PDF certificate, published it, or added it to their LinkedIn profile.

Such tracking customer engagement is valuable for your business, as you can observe customers’ behavior and, next, use gathered information to make data-driven business and marketing decisions.

What does this all mean? Online credentials come with many more benefits than printed ones. They are, among others, eco-friendly, cheaper, faster to issue, and easier to monitor.

So, is it worth printing all certificate types if you can just create and send them easily to your recipients with Certifier?

Certificate printing made easier with Certifier

Each type of certificate has value to its holder – whether it’s printed or digital. Printed certificates offer a tangible keepsake, while digital certificates are faster to issue and easier to manage.

If you decide to print certificates, you no longer need to worry about how to print certificates at home, printer settings, or design cut-offs. With Certifier’s built-in printing, you can order high-quality printed certificates directly from the platform and have them delivered to recipients.

Certifier supports both approaches. You can send digital certificates instantly, print them yourself, or use professional printing integrated into Certifier for a guaranteed result. This flexibility lets you choose what works best for each program or recipient.

Just sign up for free and start using Certifier today.