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PDF badge certificates now downloadable by badge issuer for multiple purposes

May 20, 2025

PDF badges have become an increasingly popular feature of CanCred. Until now, they have only been available for badge recipients, the “owners” of the credentials. But starting today, badge issuers can download them for purposes such as credential archiving or printing high quality hard copies for awards ceremonies.

PDF badges - online and offline. The best of both worlds!

Screenshot showing how to download a PDF badge

About PDF badges

PDF badges are a unique feature of the CanCred platform, based on Open Badge Factory technology, because they act like regular badges, combining the best aspects of offline and online. Each PDF contains the full metadata that’s normally embedded in a badge image, but it’s human readable without a displayer platform AND it can be uploaded to Passport to act like a regular Open Badge.

When PDF badges were first introduced, they only had one style, but now you can make as many styles as you want. See the custom PDF below, which was designed for the ground-breaking IT Apprenticeship Program for Indigenous Peoples from the Government of Canada.

Example of a custom PDF badge

Learn how to customize your own PDF badges

Make your badge PDFs a celebration of your learning!

Organisations who have front end developers familiar with CSS can experiment for themselves here:
Admin tools > PDF templates > Create new PDF template

Screenshot of the PDF template user interface

Alternatively, contact us at info@cancred.ca for a reasonable service quotation.

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