High School Graduation Certificates That Actually Get Framed

Print High School Graduation Certificates for the Whole Class

If you're a high-school administrator handling graduation logistics, the senior-class diploma run is one of the year's most-deferred and least-fun tasks. Pre-printed diplomas from state vendors are expensive ($3-8 per certificate, plus per-student personalization fees) and inflexible — they take 2-3 weeks lead time and locking in vendor templates means your design is identical to every other school in the state. Doing it yourself in Word is faster but error-prone at 200+ students. EZdoc sits between the two.

What a High School Diploma Should Include

1. School name + district + state, centered top — often with the school's seal or mascot
2. Conferral language — typically "Be it known that" or "This certifies that"
3. Recipient name, in the largest type
4. The credential — "has satisfactorily completed the course of study prescribed by the [State] Board of Education and is awarded this Diploma of Graduation"
5. Honors, if any — Valedictorian, Salutatorian, National Honor Society, GPA-based honors
6. Date and location
7. Signatures — Principal, often Superintendent, sometimes School Board Chair
8. State seal, if your state requires it on diplomas — your district office can confirm requirements

The Senior Roster CSV

Your school's SIS (PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Skyward, etc.) exports the senior roster as CSV. Required columns:

• recipient_name — student's full name with proper capitalization
• graduation_year — typically just the year (2026)

Useful optional columns:

• honors — Valedictorian, Salutatorian, NHS, Honor Roll. Empty fields render cleanly.
• _email_to — auto-emails each personalized diploma to the student or parent. Useful for digital-first delivery.
• diploma_id — if your district uses unique diploma identifiers, include them as a footer line.

Design Conventions for High Schools

High schools sit between the playful K-12 ceremony certificates and formal college diplomas. The right register:

• School colors visible — borders, accent lines, sometimes the institution-name typography
• Mascot or seal at the top, but not dominating — typography should still be the dominant element
• Formal serif typography for the body and recipient name
• Conservative ornament — borders should feel solid but not Victorian
• Heavy cardstock — at minimum 80lb. Many schools use 100lb cotton stock for the "real diploma" feel.

Print or Digital?

Most schools still issue physical diplomas at graduation ceremonies — students walk across the stage, get the diploma. EZdoc generates the PDF; you print on certificate stock. For schools that have moved to digital-first delivery (or want a digital backup), the auto-email column delivers each PDF to the student's email post-batch.

Some districts now issue both — a paper diploma for the ceremony and a digital PDF for the student's records. The same EZdoc batch handles both: print the PDFs, also auto-email them to _email_to addresses.

State-Specific Diploma Requirements

Some states have specific requirements for high school diploma content (state seal, exact conferral language, signature lines for specific officials). Check your state's Department of Education guidance before bulk-printing — usually a single phone call to your district office. EZdoc's flexible design adapts to whatever your state requires.

Generate your high-school diplomas now — three free generations to dial in the design before bulk-printing your senior class.