Free Printable Graduation Certificate Template

A graduation certificate is the piece of paper somebody holds up in the photograph. That is not a small job: for a four-year-old leaving preschool, for a homeschooling family closing out twelve years at the kitchen table, or for a course that ends with a handshake, this is the ceremony made physical.

What this is — and what it is not

This is a printable certificate for a ceremony or a keepsake. It is not an accredited diploma: it does not grant a qualification and no institution is going to accept it as proof of one. If you need proof of a real degree or high-school diploma, that comes from the school or the registrar, and a template cannot replace it.

Where it fits perfectly: high school and college ceremonies, homeschool completions, summer and language schools, online courses and bootcamps, adult education, and the ceremony held before the official document arrives weeks later. For the youngest graduates there is a page of its own — the kindergarten graduation certificate, with wording and a design built for five-year-olds.

What to write on it

The default wording is the formal one — “has completed the prescribed course of study and is hereby awarded this diploma” — which suits a high school or a college programme. For younger children it reads absurdly, so change it. Something like:

• Homeschool: “has completed the twelfth grade at home, with every book finished and every experiment survived”
• A course: “has completed 120 hours of Spanish and can now argue in two languages”

Sign it as Principal for a school, Dean for a college, Teacher for preschool. If the achievement was a course rather than a stage of schooling, the certificate of completion has wording built for that instead.

Before you print

Click any line above and type over it, pick a design and paper size, and download the PDF — it is made in your browser, so no names are uploaded anywhere. Print at 100% scale, not “fit to page”, in landscape. For a graduating class, print the set on 200 gsm: it is the difference between a certificate that survives the car journey home and one that arrives creased.

Questions

Can I use this as an official diploma?
No. It is a ceremonial certificate and a keepsake. Official diplomas and transcripts are issued by the institution, and no printable template — this one included — substitutes for one.

Diploma or certificate — which word should I use?
A diploma is the document an institution issues to confer a qualification; a graduation certificate marks the occasion. If you are running the ceremony rather than the registrar’s office, certificate is the honest word, and the title line is editable either way.

Can I print one for the whole class?
Yes. Type the first name, download, change the name and download again. The wording and the date stay put, so each one is a single field and a click.

Is it really free?
Yes, for personal, educational and commercial use, with no watermark and no account. The only thing you cannot do is resell the file itself as a template.