ALL ABOUT Diploma Covers

These products are made to hold a diploma in style. There are two types of product turned edge and single ply. Turned edge products are made of board, either padded or unpadded, with covering material wrapped around it. The covering material may be leatherette, leather, or others, such as linen. Single ply products are simply a thick piece of covering material with a document holder glued inside. All products may have a logo, lettering, and borders stamped on them and they all come with a clear document protector sheet. Each standard product may hold one document, or optionally, two documents. The product size is based on, and referred to, using the size OF THE DOCUMENT to be held. Popular sizes of both turned edge and single ply products are 8.5 X 11, 11X14, 8X10, 6X8, 7X9, and 4X6. As always, we will customize these products to meet your needs, and covers may be personalized with student names.

The two functional design elements important to all types of diploma covers are document orientation and hinge location. See above for examples as referenced in the descriptions below.

Document orientation means the way the diploma is printed and will be read. The most popular orientation is LANDSCAPE, which as an example, refers to a horizontal position where you are holding an 8.5 X 11 document with your two hands on the 8.5 inch sides, and are reading left to right (see West Point, Colorado). PORTRAIT orientation refers to the opposite of landscape, meaning that you are holding an 8.5 X 11 document on the 11 sides reading left to right.

The hinge position refers to the side the cover opens on. For example, an 8.5 X 11 LANDSCAPE document holder may be hinged on the long (11) side, meaning the hinge is on top and it opens from the bottom (commonly called top hinge or top fold) Old Dominion and Mckeesport above are examples of Landscape orientation. Alternatively, it may be hinged on the short side (8.5) meaning the hinge is on the left side, and it opens from the right, like a book. A short side hinge landscape oriented cover is sometimes called panoramic (see West Point above). Similarly an 8.5X11 PORTRAIT oriented diploma holder may open on the long side or short side. If it opens on the long side, it will be hinged on the left and open from the right, like a book . A short side hinge would be hinged at the top and open from the bottom. A PORTRAIT short side hinge is very rare.

Cover design elements include the type of stamping, if any, and whether there will be a border or frame which follows the outer edges of the cover. There are single frames and double frames. These frames may be stamped with a foil, such as gold or silver, or they may be blind meaning they are stamped without foil (see Colorado above for an example of a double blind frame). Similarly, a logo or other type may be stamped with foil or blind stamped without foil. It is important to have quality artwork for logos. There will be artwork charges to modify art (e.g. color images or physical samples) in addition to the normal die charges.

Interior design elements include the number of documents to be held, the ribbon color, inclusion of an etching, and the interior panel material. Document holders are panels of material with ribbon at each corner that holds the diploma. There may be one or two of these ribbon panels in a normal cover. The standard product has one such panel, meaning it holds one diploma, and a piece of material on the opposite side. Material may be tag stock which is a thick white paper or thin white board, moir, or Windsor. Moire is a silk like material with a strong grain (see West Point). Windsor is similar to moir, but has a very faint linen like pattern. A typical diploma cover includes one tag stock ribbon panel with one moir panel opposite. Both Moire and Windsor come in a variety of colors, but popular colors include white, oyster, gold, and platinum.

Etchings may be placed on the interior panel regardless of the material type. These are normally printed in black, but can be another single color, or even full color. The West Point cover above includes a black etching on platinum moir. Proper artwork must be submitted, usually as a PDF in the appropriate size. If artwork is not provided, John Galt can develop it, but it may be expensive and delay the delivery of the product.