You can easily turn any Merit achievement into print-ready, personalized certificates for all of your students. They will be able to print these certificates at any time after logging into their Merit account or directly from their achievement email.
How Certificates Work
This feature works by combining a branded certificate background image with any matching achievement in Merit. Students' names and semesters will then get automatically inserted onto the image creating a unique certificate for each person:
You can create as many certificates as you'd like inside your account. To set up certificates all you will need to do is add a certificate template to your account. This guide will walk you through setting up a certificate:
Design a Background Image
Your first step is to design a background image for your certificate. The background can include any graphics, text or signatures that you would like. Certificates are designed to be printed in landscape orientation on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper. Make sure the background image is at least 1056 pixels wide and 816 pixels tall. Larger images will be automatically downsized.
Pro Tip: Don't include dates in your certificate backgrounds. The date that the achievement was published will be auto-inserted for you.
If you need help designing a certificate background, the Merit team is happy to help. We've created custom background images for many schools. If you need assistance, please contact us at help@meritpages.com.
Add a Certificate to Merit
When your certificate background is ready, you'll want to add it to your Merit account. To do this, go to the Certificates section under the Settings tab. This page will display all of the custom certificate templates you have created. Click Add a Certificate to start a new template:
Set Up Your Basics
The first things you will add are your certificate's Category, Name and Description:
Here's a brief summary of each:
- Category: The Merit category that matches up to your certificate. Use the drop-down box to choose one of Merit’s categories (like Dean’s List, President’s List or Credentials).
- Category Default: Choose Yes to automatically use this certificate when you create an achievement that uses the above category. You can always change it in the achievement workflow. Choose No to manually pick your certificate each time you publish an achievement.
- Name: Your certificate's name is internal to your account and will not appear anywhere on the printed document. Choose a name that helps identify your certificate. Use a year or President name to
- Description: The Description field is internal to only your students' accounts and will not appear anywhere on the printed document.
Pro Tip: If you're looking to create a certificate for a story that does not have a matching category in Merit, please contact the Merit team at help@meritpages.com.
Upload Your Background
Next, use the Update Image button to locate and upload the branded certificate background image that you designed. This will plug the default image into your certificate:
Configure Your Text
After setting up your background, you will configure the three text fields that can appear in your certificate. Here you will use the drop-down boxes to select the font type, size and color. You can ignore the names and dates that appear in these fields. They are only there for preview purposes:
Pro Tip: If you don't want one of these text fields to appear in your certificate, set the font size to 0 (as pictured above for the Dean's List category).
Position Your Text
Your final step is to position your certificate text on the page. The image that you uploaded earlier will appear at the bottom of your screen. Adjusting the margins and alignment above it will change the location of the text box that overlays your image. When your image looks good, click the Create & Publish Certificates button:
Note: If you want to use a font that is not in the certificate font library, please locate the font on this list and contact Merit at help@meritpages.com.