Portrait or Landscape: Which Format Is Best for Your CPD Certificate?

For most CPD certificates, landscape is the better default. It suits a credential that has to list what the training covered, it reads well on the screen where it will actually be opened, and it matches what people expect a certificate to look like. Portrait earns its place when the certificate carries a lot of text, when it is going to be printed and filed alongside formal qualifications, or when the profession it serves has a settled house style. Neither format is more valid than the other, and neither affects whether the certificate can be verified.

The short answer

Choose landscape if the certificate will mainly be viewed on a screen, shared on LinkedIn, or attached to an email. Choose portrait if it will mainly be printed, filed, or presented alongside academic and regulated qualifications. If you cannot decide, issue landscape. It is the format most learners expect and the one that survives being viewed on a phone.

What landscape does well

Landscape gives you width, and width is what a certificate needs when it has to name the provider, the learner, the course, the date, the CPD hours and the verification details without any of it feeling cramped. It also matches the shape of a screen. A learner opening a certificate on a laptop sees the whole thing at once, with no scrolling and no pinch to zoom.

It is the friendlier format for sharing, too. Landscape images sit well in a LinkedIn post, in a course completion email, and in the preview card that appears when a link is shared. If the point of issuing a credential is that people look at it, that matters more than it sounds.

What portrait does well

Portrait is the shape of a formal document. Degrees, diplomas and professional qualifications are overwhelmingly portrait, so a portrait CPD certificate sits naturally in a folder or a frame next to them. For learners who keep a physical CPD record, or professions where a printed file is still part of how competence is evidenced, that consistency is worth something.

Portrait also gives you depth for text. If your course has six or seven learning outcomes and you want all of them on the face of the certificate rather than on the linked record, portrait handles that more gracefully than landscape does.

The real deciding factor is how much the certificate has to say

Format is usually treated as a design question. In practice it is a content question. A certificate that says only that someone attended can be any shape you like. A certificate that sets out the aims of the training, the skills the learner can now demonstrate and the outcomes for their practice needs room, and how much room depends on how much you want on the certificate face itself.

This is where a verifiable credential changes the calculation. When the certificate links to a public achievement page that carries the full detail, the certificate face no longer has to carry everything. It can stay clean and readable, and the depth lives one click away where an employer or insurer can read it properly. That frees you to pick the format that looks right rather than the format that fits the most words. There is more on what sits where in what your certificate carries.

Where the certificate will actually be looked at

Ask where the credential ends up. In most sectors the honest answer is: on a phone, once, shortly after the course, and then again months later when someone asks for evidence. Landscape wins the first viewing. The linked record wins the second, whatever shape the certificate is.

If your learners are in a setting where paper still moves, the answer flips. Care settings, some healthcare roles and a number of trade qualifications still work from printed files, and a portrait certificate slots into those without anyone reformatting anything.

Printing, framing and paper sizes

Both formats print cleanly on A4. Landscape means turning the page, which is fine for a certificate but slightly awkward inside a bound portfolio. Portrait is the safer choice if you know the certificate will be hole-punched and filed. If you plan to offer framing, check that the aspect ratio you are issuing matches an off-the-shelf frame size before you commit to a design, as an unusual ratio turns a nice gesture into a custom framing bill.

Two logos changes the arithmetic

Co-branded certificates, where your logo appears alongside a partner's or a client's, need more horizontal room at the top of the certificate than single-logo designs do. Landscape absorbs a second logo comfortably. Portrait can do it, but the two marks end up smaller, and small logos are the thing partners notice. If co-branding is part of your offer, start from landscape and only move to portrait if you have a reason.

What you get either way with Open CPD

The Open CPD template system offers both orientations across five template families, in completion, attendance and appreciation variants, and in single-logo and two-logo layouts. You can preview the full set on the certificate templates page, and if none of them fits your brand there are bespoke templates.

Whichever you choose, the substance is identical. Every certificate carries the aims, skills and outcomes of the course, the CPD hours, the issuing provider and a unique verification ID. Every one resolves to a public achievement page that anyone can open without logging in, and every one is issued with an Open Badge 2.0 digital badge alongside it. Anyone can check a certificate through verification in under a minute. Orientation is a presentation choice. It has no bearing on whether the credential holds up.

A practical recommendation

Issue landscape as your standard. Keep a portrait version of the same template available for learners who ask for one, or for the courses that feed into a formal portfolio. Because the underlying record is the same either way, offering both costs you nothing but a second template, and it removes the only real risk here, which is picking one shape and discovering later that half your learners wanted the other.