How do you make ID badges and name tags in bulk?
Design an employee, student, visitor, or event badge in Canva and generate one card per spreadsheet row with Layerre. This is not for fake IDs or anything meant to pass as a government document.
An event, a school, or an office already has the names. The badge is a small designed card that repeats those names. This is for employee badges, student badges, visitor passes, and conference name tags. It is not for anything meant to pass as a government ID, a driver's license, or a fake document.
| Badge | Columns | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Event name tag | Name, company, role | PDF or PNG |
| Employee badge | Name, title, photo URL | PNG |
| Student or visitor | Name, date, host |
How to set the Canva file
Use a horizontal card if it will sit in a lanyard sleeve, and leave a margin so the printer does not clip the name. The name is the largest text. Company and role are separate boxes. A photo frame should be a real image layer, mapped to a public photo URL. Initials on a colored circle are a fine fallback when you do not have photos. Put that fallback in the template rather than hoping a broken image URL renders as a person.
Free versus a list
Canva's free plan can design one badge. A list needs Bulk Create on a paid Canva plan, or Layerre's free 50 credits for the first batch. Map name and photo URL, generate one proof, then run the roster. Reprinting a misspelled name spends another credit. Fix the sheet, do not edit the PNG.
PDF is the safer handoff to a print shop because the page size stays put. PNG is easier to drop into an email that tells someone their badge is ready. The same event's awards use a different template: bulk certificates.
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