Make a certificate: type the names, print one for each person

What is on a certificate

• The heading, in thick letters across the top: up to 40 characters, on one line.
• Small words above the name, up to 60 characters, on one line.
• The name, the largest thing on the sheet. With no name, an empty line to write one on by hand.
• Words under the name, up to 200 characters, on 1 to 4 lines, with one small line of up to 60 characters under them.
• One or two lines to sign near the bottom, each with the words you type under it, up to 30 characters. With no words, no line is drawn.
• A border if you want one: two lines, one line, or a thin line with thick corners. Nothing else: no seal, no ribbon, no picture, no date of its own, no name of this site.

How the words are set

• Every kind of words has its own band across the sheet and is set in the middle of it. Leave a box empty and its band stays empty; nothing else moves.
• Each name is tried on 1 line and on 2. The page keeps whichever gives the larger letters, and 1 line when they come out the same. The letters of a name stop at about an eighth of the height of the sheet.
• The words under the name take the fewest lines they fit on, from 1 to 4, each line holding as many words as its width takes.
• Words are not split and nothing is cut off the sheet. A line that is too wide is made smaller until it fits, so one very long word comes out small.
• Up to 40 names of 40 characters. A longer name is cut at 40, names after the 40th are left out, and the page says how many. The same name twice is kept twice.
• Every name the same size, if you tick it: every name is then as small as the longest one has to be.

Paper and printing

• Each certificate is one page, turned sideways, about 9.6 inches wide and 7.2 inches high (about 24 by 18 centimetres), with a margin of half an inch that home printers leave white. The drawing fits Letter paper and A4.
• 3 names are 3 sheets. The 40 names and 10 with an empty line together are 50 sheets.
• Ones with an empty line, up to 10, are for names you do not know yet. One of them can be copied as many times as you like.
• Plain paper is thin. A certificate feels better in heavier paper, if your printer takes it.
• The letters are your device’s own (Georgia or Times for the ones with small feet, Arial or Helvetica for the plain ones, or the nearest it has), so the shapes can differ a little from one device to another. The page measures them on your device before it sets the size.
• It has been tried in one browser’s print preview (Chromium, saved as PDF), not on paper from a real printer.

What this page does not do

• It does not make a diploma, a licence or a record of anything. Anyone can print one of these, so it shows only that someone took the time to say thank you or well done.
• It does not read the names or the words: it cannot tell whether a name is spelled the way its owner spells it. Read every sheet over before you sign it.
• It cannot give one name its own words: the heading, the words under the name and the lines to sign are the same on every sheet.
• It has no seals, no logos, no pictures and no colors other than black and white.
• It does not write the words for you. The example is only an example.
• It cannot get you a copy of a birth, marriage or death certificate. For a birth certificate, see the guide to replacing ID; after someone has died, see After a death.
• It keeps nothing: close the page and the names and the words are gone.

Every time the page is built, a program checks 20 examples worked by hand. Then it makes up 1,500 sets of words, long and short, with accents, very long words and empty lines, and draws each the way the page draws it. A second reader, written separately, takes every line back off the drawing. It checks that every name typed is there, in order and once; that the words under the name are the words typed; that every line is inside its own band and in the middle of it; that two lines do not meet; that the lines to sign are where they belong; and that no line could be larger. The program uses made-up letter widths; the widths of real letters come from your device, and those were tried in one browser only.