How to create, send & verify event certificates

Everything you need to go from a participant list to a professional, verifiable certificate in every attendee's inbox. It works for workshops, webinars, FDPs, conferences, hackathons and courses.

Every certificate gets a unique number (like AIWS24-00012), a QR code and a public verification link, so anyone can confirm it's genuine.

1. Quick start: your first certificate in 10 minutes

1. Sign up at certgen.app with your organisation name, name, email and password. Then click the link in the verification email.
2. Events → New event. Enter the name and dates, then save.
3. Participants → pick the event → Add yourself as a test participant.
4. Certificates → Design: choose a background colour, click Add field and type {{ParticipantName}}, make it large, drag it to the centre, add your logo and a signature, then Save and Preview sample PDF.
5. Generate (accept the issuer agreement the first time), then Send emails. Open the email, scan the QR code and check that it verifies.
6. Happy? Bulk upload the real participants, then Generate and Send again. Only the new people are processed.

2. Your account and workspace

• Workspace: everything you create belongs to your organisation. Rename it under Organization. This is the issuer name recipients see.
• Profile: update your name or password. Changing the password signs out your other sessions and sends you a security email.
• Domain verification (Organization page): prove you own your domain (e.g. college.edu) and your certificates show a verified issuer badge, the strongest trust signal you can give recipients.

3. Create an event

Go to Events → New event.

4. Add participants

One at a time

Participants → choose the event → Add. Only Full name and Email are required. The participant ID is created for you.

Bulk upload from Excel

1. Click Template. The spreadsheet comes with dropdowns for this event's roles and certificate titles.
2. Fill in one row per person:

   Column	Required	Used for
   Full Name	✅	{{ParticipantName}}
   Email	✅	Sending (must be unique within the event)
   Organization, Designation, Phone		{{Organization}}, {{Designation}}
   Role		Chooses the design; {{Role}}
   Certificate Title		{{CertificateTitle}}
   Completion Hours		{{CompletionHours}}

3. Bulk upload → Choose .xlsx file. The preview highlights every problem: missing name, invalid or duplicate email, or a role that isn't one of the event's options.
4. Fix highlighted cells directly in the preview, then click Import.

5. Design the certificate

Certificates → choose the event → Design. The controls are on the left and the live preview is on the right.

Choose the orientation (landscape or portrait) first, because changing it later moves everything.

Background and border

• Background colour: pick one from the palette. Light, quiet tones (cream, off-white, pale blue or grey) look the most professional.
• Background image: upload a full-page design, for example one made in Canva without names on it. Use Image opacity (60–80% usually works) and Brightness so the text stays readable. For best results use the page ratio (A4 landscape ≈ 3508 × 2480 px).
• Border: Single line, Double line, or Inset (thin + thick, the most formal). Set the colour, width, and inset from the page edge. Skip the border if your background image already has a frame.

Text fields

Each piece of text is a field. Click Add field and set:

Positioning precisely

• Drag any text, logo, signature or the QR code on the preview. Elements snap to the page centre and to each other, and pink guides show the snap.
• Click an element to select it, then use the arrow keys to nudge it (hold Shift for bigger steps).
• Centre H / Centre V centres the selected element on the page.
• Long text wraps automatically inside the page margins.

Variables you can use

If a participant has no value for a variable, it prints blank, so write sentences that still read well without it.

Logos and signatures

• Add logo / Add signature uploads an image into this design. Use the Width slider to size it and drag it into place.
• Saved uploads: save a logo or signature once for your whole workspace, then click Add to use it in any design. There's no need to re-upload for each event.
• Signatures can show a Name and Designation underneath, each with its own size, colour and bold setting, plus an optional signature line.

Verification QR

Set the QR code's size with the slider (keep it to at least ~10% of the page width so phones can scan it from a printout), then drag it into place, usually a bottom corner away from signatures. The QR code appears only when public verification is on.

Different designs for different roles

1. Add design and give it a name, e.g. Speaker.
2. Set Applies to role to the matching role. Leave it blank for the default design everyone else gets.
3. Click Save details. When you generate, each person gets the design that matches their role.

A design recipe that always looks professional

• One hero: the participant's name is the biggest thing on the page.
• At most 2 fonts and 3 colours. Serif for the title and name plus sans for the body is a safe pairing.
• Contrast: dark text on a light background. Fade busy images.
• Breathing room: keep everything well inside the border.
• Test the extremes: preview the sample PDF with the longest name in your list.

6. Generate certificates

• Generate creates certificates only for people who don't have one yet, so it's safe to run again after adding latecomers.
• Regenerate re-renders existing certificates with the current design and keeps the same number and QR link. Use it after fixing a typo.
• Role filter limits any action to one role (e.g. only Speakers). A role with no matches does nothing; it never falls back to everyone.
• For each certificate you can download the PDF, copy its verification link, or revoke it (with an optional reason shown publicly) and reinstate it later.

7. Send certificates

• Send emails emails everyone not yet emailed, with the PDF attached and a "View & verify" button.
• Resend deliberately emails the selected people again (after you confirm), for example after a correction.
• The email log shows what was sent or failed for each person. Resend failed retries only the failures.
• Export links downloads a CSV of every name, email and certificate link, so you can share links through your own mailbox, WhatsApp or your LMS.

8. What recipients see

• An email with their certificate PDF and a View & verify button.
• A verification page showing Genuine certificate record, the issuer (with a verified badge if you've verified your domain), their name, the event and the date, plus a Download PDF button.
• Revoked certificates show as revoked, with your reason.
• Anyone can report a concern about a certificate. Reports are reviewed by the CertGen team.

9. Common workflows

10. Troubleshooting