Diploma Template — Complete Guide

Diploma turns your invitation into an engraved certificate. The page is a sheet of heavy cotton paper inside a fine guilloché border — the woven line work you see on banknotes and real diplomas — with an engraved rosette at its head, your photo set like an official portrait in an engraved oval, and a wax seal on its ribbon pressed into the lower corner.

Diploma is one of Fotify's simpler designs: its look comes from your two school colours — any colours at all — and an emblem.

This guide covers how Diploma looks, the options unique to it, how to apply it to your event, and how it lays out each section of your invitation.

Diploma is available on every plan, Free included.

For an overview of the template gallery and the picker, see How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation.

What makes Diploma different

Standard templates change colours and fonts over the same shared layout. Diploma replaces the layout itself: its own cover and closing, its own section heads, and its own treatment of the message, countdown, gallery, story, programme and reply card.

Signature design elements

• Two school colours — pick them from the suggested swatches or from the colour picker. The school colour engraves the border, the rosette, the name, the titles and the buttons; the trim colour is the wax seal, the stripe on its ribbon and the fine outer rules
• A guilloché border — a rope of fine engraved waves between two rules, around the certificate and around the reply card
• An engraved rosette — layered, interlaced line work with your emblem at its centre: a mortarboard, a laurel wreath, an open book or the lamp of learning
• An official portrait — your cover photo in an engraved oval of a rule, a twisted rope and a fine ring, with the rosette at its foot like a badge
• A wax seal on its ribbon — pressed with your class year, exactly as you type it
• Engraved type — Cinzel, Roman capitals like the lettering on a certificate, for the name, the titles and the labels, with Libre Caslon Text, a classic document serif, for everything you read
• Always readable — whatever colours you pick, even a pale yellow or a near-black, the text and the buttons are deepened until they read clearly on the paper

When to choose Diploma

Diploma suits any occasion that celebrates finishing something:

• Graduations of every level — high school, college, a master's degree or a PhD, in your school's own colours
• Commencement and graduation parties — the cover line and the degree line say whose day it is
• Nursing pinning ceremonies — choose the Lamp of learning emblem and set the degree line to the programme
• Award ceremonies and certifications — a page that looks like the certificate itself

Whatever the occasion, the photos your guests take matter as much as the invitation. Guests can scan the event QR code and add their photos to the shared gallery. See how Fotify works for parties and digital invitations.

For a padded school yearbook with a portrait grid of class photos, try Yearbook. For an embossed keepsake card stamped in foil, try Milestone.

Applying Diploma to your event

1. Open your event, click Invitation in the sidebar, then the Invitation tab
2. In Design Template, click Change template if the gallery is collapsed, and find Diploma under Designs (it is listed under the Graduation filter, and under Party and Elegant too)
3. Optional: press Try it on to see Diploma with your own invitation details in the live preview — nothing is saved until you press Use this design
4. Or click the Diploma card to apply it straight away
5. Open Diploma options below the gallery to pick your school colours and the other options described below. Changes save automatically

Diploma works on every plan. On free events a small "Made with Fotify" badge appears in the bottom corner of the invitation; any paid plan or an active subscription removes it.

Switching to another template later is non-destructive: your event content stays exactly as you entered it, and your Diploma options are kept in case you switch back.

Diploma options

Diploma has seven options of its own. They take the place of the standard colour and font controls, which Diploma doesn't use.

1. School colour

The engraving: the guilloché border and the rosette, the event name, the section titles, the ribbon under the seal and the buttons. Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Navy (default), Crimson, Forest, Purple, Black or Royal
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker, so you can match your school's colour exactly. The colour's code is shown beside the chips

Any colour works. Diploma never paints your pick as it is where it would hurt legibility: the name, the titles and the buttons use the shade of your colour that reads clearly on the paper.

2. Trim colour

Your second school colour: the wax seal, the stripe down its ribbon, the outer rules of the border and the ribbons that carry the dates in your story. Choose from Gold (default), Cream, Silver, White or Scarlet, or Pick any color.

A very pale trim — cream, ivory or white — can't be seen as a seal on cream paper, so Diploma seals in your school colour instead (a crimson seal under a crimson-and-cream ribbon, for example), and draws the fine rules in your school colour too.

3. Emblem

Engraved at the centre of the rosette, and pressed into the seal when you leave the class year blank:

• Mortarboard (default)
• Laurel wreath
• Open book
• Lamp of learning — the traditional symbol of a nursing pinning
• No emblem — the rosette keeps a small engraved star at its centre

4. Class year

Up to 4 characters pressed into the wax seal on the cover and on the reply card, exactly as you type them — for example "2026" or "'26". Leave it blank and the seal shows your emblem instead, or plain engraved rings with No emblem. Diploma never works out a year from your event date.

5. Degree line

A line set in italics under the name, like the line a diploma confers — for example "Bachelor of Science in Nursing", "High School Diploma" or "Doctor of Philosophy" (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank and nothing is shown.

6. Cover line

The engraved line at the top of the certificate (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("Join us to celebrate the graduate"). Try "The Class of 2026", "Lincoln High School" or "Please join us for the pinning of".

7. Closing line

The line at the end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("We can't wait to celebrate with you").

Every piece of text Diploma prints on the invitation — the cover line, the Kindly reply and Reply buttons, the section labels and titles, the countdown units, the closing line — can also be rewritten directly on the page: switch the live preview into edit mode and double-click the text. Section titles you have already set in their own settings (story, countdown, gifts, where to stay, getting there, FAQs) are edited in place the same way.

How each section is treated

Cover — the certificate

A certificate replaces the standard header: a sheet of cotton paper with a faint engraved tint, inside the guilloché border with a small rosette at each corner and a fine rule just inside it. Centred on it:

• The cover line (option 6) in spaced Roman capitals
• Your cover photo as an official portrait in an engraved oval, keeping the horizontal crop you set, with the rosette and emblem at its foot. Without a photo the rosette stands alone, larger
• Your event name in Cinzel. Long names step down a size so they never break mid-word
• Your degree line (option 5) in italics, when you typed one
• The date, the time and the place under a short engraved rule — the time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover, the date and the place follow Show date and Show location, and every guest sees the date you picked, whatever their time zone
• Kindly reply — a button that scrolls to the RSVP form. It only appears when your RSVP section is visible, and never on a save-the-date page
• The wax seal on its ribbon, with your class year (option 4) or your emblem — beneath the button on a phone, in the lower corner on wider screens

Section heads

Each section opens centred, like a line on a certificate: a short engraved rule, the section's label in spaced capitals, then its title in Cinzel and, for the story and gifts, your subtitle or gift message.

Message — the address card

Your message on a card framed by a double engraved rule, in the document serif with an engraved initial on the first paragraph (when it is long enough to carry one), and a short engraved rule beneath. A long message steps down a size to stay easy to read.

Countdown — engraved cartouches

The remaining days, hours and minutes (and seconds, if you turned them on), each number engraved in a small tablet with concave corners and a double rule, with its unit in spaced capitals beneath. It counts down to your event's date and time in the venue's time zone, and shows your completed message once the moment arrives.

Gallery (Carousel)

Every photo the same upright print in a cotton mat with a double engraved rule, like certificates framed on a wall: two to a row on a phone and three on wider screens (two for two photos, and a single print for one). A last row that isn't full is centred, like frames hung on a wall.

Story — the academic timeline

A double rule runs down the side of the page, and every milestone hangs from it at a small ribbon rosette, set the same way: its date on a swallowtail ribbon in your trim colour, its title in Cinzel, its text, and its photo as a framed print beside the words on wider screens.

Itinerary — the order of exercises

Your programme printed like the order of exercises of a commencement: one framed sheet, each day under a centred heading between two fine rules (only when the day has a date or a label), and every entry on one line — the moment, a dotted leader and the time — with the place and any note beneath in italics. Entry icons are not shown.

RSVP — the reply card

"Will you join us?" with your RSVP deadline under it, and the reply form on a small certificate inside the guilloché border, with the wax seal on its ribbon pressed over its top corner. On a save-the-date page the card holds the save-the-date note instead of the form, centred, without the seal.

Location, Gifts, Event Details and Save the Date

These four sections share their structure with Fotify's other picker-coloured designs, dressed in Diploma's colours and type: cotton cards with square corners, buttons in your school colour and Cinzel titles.

• Location — a map card beside an address card with your address, your directions and an Open in Maps button. When a map can't be shown, the map card draws a pin with the venue's coordinates; without coordinates the address card spans the row
• Gifts — every registry, payment option, charity and wishlist item is its own card in a grid, grouped under small labels (with a count) when you offer more than one kind. Payment details sit in an inset box with a Copy button, and long account numbers wrap inside the card. Pay links, scan-to-pay QR codes and wishlist reservations appear as buttons on each card
• Event Details — a card per topic: dress code with your suggested and avoided colours as swatches, where to stay with each hotel as a mini-card (distance, price range, promo code, notes and a Book button), getting there with an icon for each kind of transport, and a full-width FAQ card where each question opens on tap
• Save the Date (Calendar) — one card with the title and the event date on one side, and Google, Apple (downloads the calendar file) and Outlook buttons on the other

Closing

A small engraved colophon between two double rules: the rosette, your closing line (option 7), the date and place, and a Reply button.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Diploma's style:

• Photo upload, QR code, Table assignment, Playlist, Sub-events, Special treatments and custom sections

Each sits in the same column as the rest of the page on a cotton card with a fine rule in your trim colour, with titles in Cinzel and buttons in your school colour. Photos in custom sections are capped in height so a tall portrait never takes over the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Where does the year on the seal come from? A: Only from the Class year option, exactly as you type it (up to 4 characters). Leave it blank and the seal shows your emblem instead; Diploma never works out a year from your event date.

Q: Does Diploma print a degree or a school name I didn't type? A: No. The degree line and the cover line show only what you type in their options. Leave the degree line blank and nothing appears under the name; leave the cover line blank and it reads "Join us to celebrate the graduate".

Q: Can I use Diploma for a nursing pinning? A: Yes. Choose the Lamp of learning emblem, set the degree line to your programme (for example "Bachelor of Science in Nursing") and use the cover line for something like "Please join us for the pinning of".

Q: I picked cream as my trim colour. Why is the seal in my school colour? A: A cream or white seal would disappear on cream paper, so Diploma presses the seal in your school colour and keeps your trim colour for the stripe down its ribbon.

Q: I picked a pale school colour. Why are the name and buttons darker than my colour? A: Diploma keeps every label readable: the name, the titles and the buttons use a deeper shade of the same hue so they read clearly on the paper.

Q: I don't have a cover photo. Will the cover look empty? A: No. Without a photo the rosette stands larger at the head of the certificate, above the name.

Q: Does Diploma work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the timeline rule and the date ribbons move to the right side, the seal on the reply card moves to the left corner and tilts the other way, and the class year and the countdown numbers still read left to right. The cover photo's crop stays as you set it.

Q: Does the page move? A: Only gently on the cover: the certificate settles, the rosette turns into place and the seal is pressed. Guests whose device asks for reduced motion see a still page.

Next steps

• See How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation for the template gallery and how to try a design on before applying it
• Compare the other school designs: Yearbook, a padded school yearbook, or Pennant, a felt pennant in your team colours
• Let guests share their photos with a QR code: read about Fotify for parties and digital invitations with RSVP

Need help? Get in touch through the in-dashboard help widget.