Diploma Templates for Every Level: High School, College, and Graduate

Diploma templates are not one-size-fits-all. A high school diploma, a college degree, and a graduate diploma each follow different conventions, and a template that ignores them looks wrong at a glance. This guide covers what changes at each level, gives you a free printable college template to download (PDF, no email required), and explains where templates stop being enough.

What changes between high school, college, and graduate diplomas

• The wording. High school diplomas certify completion of a course of study prescribed by a board of education. College diplomas confer a degree: “The Board of Trustees, upon the recommendation of the faculty, has conferred upon…” followed by the specific degree and major. Graduate diplomas add the field and sometimes Latin honors.
• The signatures. A principal and superintendent sign a high school diploma. A college diploma is signed by the university president, the dean of the relevant school, and often the registrar or board chair.
• The seal. High schools use a school or state seal; universities use their institutional seal, which is usually older, more detailed, and carries a founding date or motto.
• The size. High school diplomas are commonly 8.5 by 11 inches or 6 by 8. College diplomas run larger: 11 by 14 and even 12 by 15 are typical, which is why standard frames often do not fit them.

If your template mixes these up, anyone who has seen a real diploma of that level will notice. A “college diploma” that certifies “completion of a course of study” reads as a high school document with the wrong header.

Download free diploma templates

Here are both of our print-ready templates on US Letter, free with no email required. The college version uses conferral wording with lines for the institution, graduate name, and degree, plus signature lines for president and dean. The high school version has the classic board-of-education layout with name, school, date, and signature lines.

For printing tips specific to high school diplomas, and what to check before relying on a template at all, see our full high school diploma template guide.

“Graduation diploma template” usually means something else

A quick vocabulary note. Many of the files labeled graduation diploma template online are actually ceremony certificates: decorative documents for kindergarten graduations, course completions, or award nights. They have their place, and we cover that format in our guide to certificate of completion templates. But they are not designed to resemble an academic diploma, so check which kind you are downloading before you spend time customizing one.

Where all templates hit their ceiling

The limits are the same at every level, and they get more noticeable the higher the level. Generic templates cannot reproduce a specific institution: the seal, the exact conferral wording, the typography a university has used for decades. They print flat on whatever paper you load. And for college diplomas, the standard-size template ignores that most real degrees are physically larger documents.

If you want a document that resembles what an institution actually issued, that takes reproduction work rather than a fill-in file: matching the layout, printing on heavyweight parchment, and finishing with an embossed seal. That is what our diploma maker does, with layouts for high school, college, and university formats, and our guide to what a college diploma looks like shows the level of detail involved.

Frequently asked questions