Sundry Works Help · Papers

How to make a certificate of authenticity

A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.

What it's for

The Papers tab holds both of the open painting's printed documents. The three buttons at the top choose what you are looking at - Certificate, Story Label or Simple Label - and the tab remembers which one you were last on.

They are one job rather than two. The certificate and the full back label both print at 8 × 5.5 inches, so they come off the same sheet of card, cut the same, and file together - and the label carries the certificate's own number, so the card glued to the painting and the paperwork in the buyer's hands point at each other.

Everything on this tab is for the one painting you have open, and prints one at a time. The label that goes on the WALL beside a painting at a show is a different document - it is the Show label on the Card tab - and a whole show of those prints on one sheet from Batch Print in the Catalogue. There is a link through to it under the print buttons here.

Everything on both fills in automatically from the painting record and your business profile - title, medium, dimensions, date, artist name, and contact details.

The back label

The label is the one that gets glued to the back of the painting. It carries the title, the painting's story, and a details block of artist, completion date, dimensions, medium, paint and certificate number, with the copyright line and your contact details along the foot.

It comes in two sizes, and they are the second and third buttons at the top of the tab. "Story Label" is the full 8 × 5.5 card, laid out around the story. "Simple Label" is a 5 × 3 card carrying the same details in two columns and no story at all - for the painting you never wrote one for, which is most of them for most painters. Whichever one is showing is the one Print and Save PNG act on.

On both, the title always stays on one line. A long title is set smaller until it fits across the card, and a short one stays at the full size.

There is no story to pick: the label takes the painting's story, which is what it was laid out around, and a line beside the preview says how many words that is. The story is then sized to the card - a short one set large enough to fill its column, a long one brought back down, somewhere between about 8 and 15 point - so the card is neither half empty nor crammed. Only a story too long to fit even at its smallest is cut off at the column, and a note says so while there is still time to trim it on the Story tab.

The Paint line fills in from "Paint you use" on the Business tab, so it only has to be typed once. Fill the box in on this tab only when a particular painting was done in something else.

The preview is the very markup that goes to the printer, laid out at its true size, so what you see is what the paper gets. Give the window enough width and it is shown actual size; below that, the line under the preview says what you are looking at instead, such as "Shown at 80%".

Print sends the card to the printer at its true size. Save PNG gives you the same card as a 300dpi picture - for a print shop, or to keep with the painting's other files.

Certificate design

Choose the certificate's colours (background, text, accent) and border style (none, thin rule, ornate, or double rule). The ornate border includes decorative corner diamonds. Colours default to your business profile and can be reset at any time.

Approving and locking

Each document has its own "Approve and lock" bar. Press it once that document looks right and its settings go out of reach. Exporting and printing carry on working - a certificate gets lost and reissued over the years, so printing was never the finish line. The settings stay readable, just dimmed, and "Unlock to edit" opens them again with no fuss.

The Papers tick in a painting's progress strip answers for both: it only fills in once the certificate and the label have both been made, and only stamps green once both have been approved. A painting marked "Not for sale" owes neither and is never chased for them.

The certificate number

Certificates are numbered by the date the piece was signed: a painting finished on the 26th of December 2025 is 2025-12-26. The number is only ever as precise as the date you have recorded - a piece that only knows "August 2011" is 2011-08, and one with no date at all falls back to the year it was catalogued, so there is always a number and the format never breaks.

The number comes from that painting's own date, so no other painting can move it. Catalogue a piece you finished years ago and nobody is renumbered; correct a date and only that one record changes.

Two paintings from the same date never share a number. The first one issued keeps the plain number, and each one after it gets a letter: 2026-09-05, then 2026-09-05-B, then 2026-09-05-C. The same goes for paintings with no day recorded - 2011-08, then 2011-08-B. The letter is worked out from the certificates already issued, and the tab shows it before you print, so what you see is what goes on paper. Entering the day a painting was finished usually makes the letter unnecessary.

Certificates issued before letters existed are left exactly as they are, even where two of them share a number, because those papers may already be with collectors.

Exporting, printing, or approving a certificate issues it - and so does printing or saving either back label, which carries the same number onto a card that gets glued down. The number and the date it was issued are frozen onto that painting from then on and nothing later moves them. A number on paper in somebody else's hands has stopped being yours to change. Reprint that certificate in three years and it still carries the day it was issued, not the day you reprinted it.

Certificate sizes and spacing

• Heading - the "Certificate of Authenticity" title. Adjust size and letter spacing.
• Painting title - shown in quotes below the heading. Its font starts on "Script from Brand type", which follows the Script set on the Business tab; you can pick one of your own fonts or a built-in one instead. Adjust the size, and it auto-shrinks if the title is long.
• Details - medium, dimensions, and completion date pulled from the painting record.
• Footer - artist name, certificate number, issue date, and contact info.
• Logo - toggle on or off, adjust width. Uses the logo from the Business tab.
• QR code - optional, appears in the bottom-right corner.
• Fonts - the heading and the signature line follow the Serif in Brand type (the heading stays in Fraunces until a Serif is chosen), the details and footer the Typewriter, and your name the Sans. Both labels are set in the Serif, and a label printed in a font other than Georgia waits a moment for the font before printing.

Open a painting on the Paintings tab first - both documents build from whatever painting is currently open.

The rest of the Help

Start here

• Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
• Using Sundry Works on your phone - Setting up the phone, whether or not there is a computer as well.

Your catalogue

• What's due and what's unfinished - The first tab: what's coming up, what's still to do, what's unfinished.
• Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
• Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
• How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
• Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
• Printing show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's labels, or a portfolio to send.

Making things from a painting

• Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
• Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
• How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
• Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
• Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
• Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
• Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.

Running the business

• Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, colours, and AI key.
• An address book for galleries and collectors - A simple address book for galleries, collectors, suppliers, and more.
• Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
• A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
• All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.

Connections and setup

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
• Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
• Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
• Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the computer off.
• Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.