The Certificate Designer allows you to create polished, professional certificates for your learners - select a template, customize your certificate's content and layout, and upload a branded background image. This article walks you through each step.
APPLIES TO:
- Plan: Basic and above
- Role: Site Owner
About the Certificate Designer
The new certificate designer is only available on sites created on or after July 8, 2026. If your site was created before this date, you will instead have access to the legacy certificate experience. Learn more about this here: Thinkific Certificates
The certificate designer lets you create and customize the look of your course certificates directly within the Certifications section of your admin dashboard. Choose from a set of professionally designed templates, customize the content that appears on your certificate, upload your own background image, and save your design so it's ready to issue to learners when they complete your course.
Certificates are issued automatically when a learner completes a course - you don't need to take any additional action after saving your design.
Learner Experience
A certificate is issued as soon as your learner completes all published lessons within your course! They will need to make sure to Continue on every published lesson to reach 100% completion. After that, the certificate will be issued to your learner.
Once a certificate is issued, it will be available within your learner's account settings. This means they can view and download certificates even if their course access has expired.
For a learner to access a certification from their account settings:
- Login to the Thinkific site
- Click the profile photo in the bottom-left corner
- Select Certificates
- Click View on desired certificate
Important Considerations
- At this time, font and colour customization are not yet available in the certificate designer. If you need a specific font or colour scheme, you can achieve this by uploading a custom background image with your branding already included.
- The new certificate designer is only available on sites created on or after July 8, 2026. If your site was created before this date, you will instead have access to the legacy certificate experience. Learn more about this here: Thinkific Certificates
- Mobile view of the certificate designer is not available at this time.
Accessing the Certificate Designer
To open the certificate designer:
- From your Admin Dashboard, go to Products
- Select Certifications
To create a new certification, click + Create in the top-right corner.
To edit an existing certification, click the ellipsis (three dots) icon next to the certification you'd like to edit, then click Edit.
From here, you will be taken to the certificate designer to start customizing your certification!
Defining Certification Details
Before customizing the look of your certificate, you'll set up the core details of your certification - including what it's called, which course it's attached to, and how long it stays valid. This can be done from the Certification details tab of the certificate designer.
You can set the following certification details:
- Name: This is the name that will appear on the certificate issued to your learners.
- Description: Provides additional context about the certification. This is for internal use only and won't appear on the certificate.
- Completion requirements: The course this certification is linked to that learners must complete to earn the certificate. A course can only be linked to one certification at a time.
- Expiration settings: Choose whether the certification expires. If enabled, set the expiration period - on a specific date or after a certain number of days. Learners' certificates will reflect the expiry date based on their completion date.
- Credit value: Indicate the number of credit values associated with completing the course to be displayed on certificate.
Click Save to confirm your certification details before moving on to customize the design of your certificate.
Customizing Your Certification Design
Once you've set your certificate's details, you can start to customize the design, including the template, background image, and fields. This can be done under the Certificate design tab - here you will see a preview of what the certificate will look like to learners.
To start customizing the design, click Edit certificate to start customizing!
Selecting a Certificate Template
The certificate designer includes a selection of pre-built templates. Templates apply a background, layout, and formatting to your certificate.
To select a template:
- In the Certificate Designer, select the Styles tab
- Select Template
- Browse the available templates
- Click on a template to apply it - a live preview will update immediately
- Click Save
Choosing a new template will update the layout and background of your certificate. Content you've customized (such as field labels and visibility settings) will be reset and will need to be re-applied.
Adding a Custom Background Image
You can upload your own background image to replace the template's default background. This lets you use your own branded design while keeping the certificate's text layout.
To upload a custom background image:
- In the certificate designer, select the Styles tab
- Select Background
- Select Replace background
- Drag and drop your desired image (or browse and select a file from your device)
Supported file types: jpg, png, gif, bmp, tiff, webp (max file size 20 MB) - Click Done
Customizing Certificate Content
The Content tab lets you control what information appears on your certificate and how it's labeled. Here, you can toggle fields on or off and edit the display text for each field label.
To customize content:
- In the certificate designer, select the Content tab
- Select Certificate labels
- Use the toggles to show or hide fields
- Select any field label to edit the display text
Learner name, course name, completion date, expiry date (if applicable), and certificate ID (auto-generated unique identifier) are automatically populated from your course and learner data and cannot be edited in the content panel.
Saving Your Certification Design
Click Save in the top-right corner of the certificate designer to save your certificate. Once saved, your certificate design will be applied to new certificates issued to learners who complete your course going forward.
Learners who were issued a certificate before you made design changes will not see the updated design - their certificates are a snapshot of the design at the time they were issued.
Deleting Certifications
You can delete an existing certification at any time. When a certification is deleted, learners who have already earned the certification won't be affected - they will keep it after it is deleted.
To delete a certification:
- Click the ellipsis (three dots) icon next to the certification you'd like to delete
- Click Delete this certification
Learners who complete the course that the certification was linked to in the future won't earn a certification or receive a certificate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I control which fields appear on the certificate?
Yes. In the Content tab of the certificate designer, you can toggle fields like the expiry date, issuance date, and certificate ID on or off. You can also edit the display label for each field.
Will my existing certificates change when I update the design?
No. Changes to your certificate design only affect certificates issued going forward. Certificates that have already been issued to learners remain unchanged.
Can I assign one certificate design to multiple courses?
At this time, a course can only be linked to one certification at a time.