CertiBatch

CertiBatch is a portable Windows desktop app for generating personalized certificates and diplomas in bulk.

You load an image template (PNG/JPG), load a multi-document YAML file with recipient data, draw text (or photo) areas on a preview canvas, assign YAML keys to text areas, optionally link a folder of portrait photos, and export one high-resolution certificate per record.

No installer. One self-contained .exe. Designed for designers who need to ship batches of certificates without repeating the same manual work twenty or thirty times.

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Why this project exists

As a designer, batch certificate work is a common pain: same layout, different names, IDs, and dates — often 20 or 30 files for a single event or course.

Doing that by hand in Photoshop, Illustrator, or Canva means:

• opening the same file again and again
• swapping text fields carefully
• exporting and renaming each file
• hoping nothing drifts out of alignment

It works, but it is slow and mentally draining. CertiBatch was built to accelerate that workflow: place the boxes once, map them to YAML keys (and photos by ID), and generate the full batch in one run.

Estimated time comparison

Times below assume a finished certificate design and a ready list of recipients. They are realistic designer estimates, not lab benchmarks.

Scenario	Manual (Photoshop / Illustrator / Canva)	With CertiBatch
20 certificates	~45–90 minutes (edit → export → rename × 20)	~5–10 minutes (load template + YAML, place boxes once, export)
30 certificates	~70–120 minutes	~6–12 minutes
Extra batch, same layout	Almost the same time again	~1–3 minutes (new YAML, same boxes if you keep the session)

For larger lists, the gap grows: manual cost scales roughly with every certificate; CertiBatch cost stays close to “one setup + one export.”

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Features

• Load PNG / JPG / JPEG certificate templates (horizontal or vertical)
• Automatic orientation detection with pixel size
• Load multi-document YAML (records separated by ---)
• Dynamic YAML key discovery for field assignment
• Interactive canvas editor:
  • click-and-drag to draw boxes
  • move / resize / delete
  • per-box Type: Text or Image
  • Zoom the preview with Ctrl + mouse wheel (export coordinates stay correct)
• Text options: font size, alignment, color
• Photo folder: match each record’s photo by a YAML key (e.g. dni → 100025226.jpg)
• Missing photos are skipped safely (certificate still exports without that image)
• Bulk export with progress bar
• Coordinate and font-size scaling from preview → original resolution
• Theme: Automatic (system) / Light / Dark — toggle under the app title
• Portable single-file Windows win-x64 executable

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User flow

1. Load template — choose your certificate design image.
2. Load YAML — one document per recipient.
3. (Optional) Photos — choose a folder of portraits and a match key (dni, cc, id, …).
4. Draw areas — boxes for name, ID, date, photo, etc. Use Ctrl + mouse wheel to zoom the preview if needed.
5. Configure each box — Type = Text (assign YAML key + style) or Image (uses the photo folder).
6. Create reproduction — pick an output folder; one PNG per YAML record.
7. Deliver — filenames prefer the first YAML key value when possible.

Template + YAML (+ photos folder)
        ↓
  place text / image boxes
        ↓
  scale preview → real pixels
        ↓
  render text + matched photos
        ↓
  PNGs in output folder

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How it works

Preview vs export coordinates

Boxes are drawn on the on-screen preview. On export, position, size, and font size are scaled to the original image pixels.

YAML records

Each YAML document (separated by ---) is one certificate. Missing text keys render as empty strings without stopping the batch.

Photos (folder match)

1. Select a folder containing portrait files.
2. Choose a match key from the YAML (ideally a unique numeric ID such as dni).
3. Name each file {value}.{jpg|jpeg|png} — e.g. 100025226.jpg.
4. Draw an Image box on the template. At export time, CertiBatch looks up the match-key value for that record and places the photo (cover / center-crop) inside the box.
5. If a file is missing or unreadable, that certificate is generated without the photo; the rest of the batch continues.

Themes

Under the CertiBatch title: a short label and an icon button cycle Automatic → Light → Dark. Automatic follows Windows app theme. Preference is saved in %AppData%\CertiBatch\settings.json.

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Requirements

• Windows 10/11 (x64)
• Download the portable .exe from Releases — no installer and no .NET runtime install required

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Data

Certificate templates

Accepts horizontal and vertical images (PNG, JPG, JPEG). Orientation is detected automatically.

YAML data format

Multi-document YAML (.yaml / .yml). Each document is one certificate; documents are separated by ---.

Rules:

• Flat key/value mapping per document.
• Key names are flexible (nombre, dni, fecha, …).
• Missing keys on a record leave text empty; export continues.
• For photos, pick one unique key as the filename (prefer numeric IDs).

Example:

---
nombre: Nombre1 Nombre2 Apellido1 Apellido2
dni: 100025225
fecha: 2025-08-10
---
nombre: Juan Carlos Pérez
dni: 100025226
fecha: 2025-08-11
---
nombre: María Fernanda López
dni: 100025227
fecha: 2025-08-12

With match key dni, place files like 100025225.jpg, 100025226.jpg, 100025227.png in the photos folder.

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Tech stack

• .NET 10 / WPF
• YamlDotNet — YAML parsing
• WPF imaging (DrawingVisual / RenderTargetBitmap) — text and photo rendering