10 Best Resume Fonts for ATS-friendly Resumes (Correct Font Size, Type, Style)

best fonts for resume
Created by CakeResume

To write the perfect resume, not only does the content matter, but the font for the resume is crucial as well. By picking ATS-friendly fonts for resumes, your resume could be screened and remembered more easily. Therefore, you could stand out among other candidates.


A good resume font should be easy to read. Hence, when you choose the font to use for your resume, keep note of selecting a simple but professional font. Moreover, a resume’s font size and style should also be clear and easy to read. A resume that contains colorful fonts or is written with inappropriate resume font sizes may be hard to read for employers.

Why Is Your Resume Font Choice Important?

When crafting your resume, your resume font is crucial. With a correct resume font, your recruiter would be able to view your resume more thoroughly, and, therefore, would also show your abilities in not only organizing but also other strengths.

1. It reads easily.

Even if you have a lot of experience and skills, if your resume is hard to read, employers may still ignore you. Consequently, remember to use resume fonts that could be screened more easily so your hiring manager can get to know you faster and actually remember who you are.

2. It proves that you’re a good organizer.

When you craft your resume, it also presents how well you organize. A well-organized resume would be more appealing since it would not take much time for recruiters to read through. If you structure your resume well, you could emphasize what you’re good at with different resume fonts, font sizes, and styles.

3. It shows how you want to present yourself to potential employers.

By picking a classy or modern resume font, it may show your personality. When you’re applying for a rather traditional company, it might be better to use a more classy resume font, while if you’re applying for companies such as in the fashion industry, a rather modern resume font would be better.

What Is the Best Font for a Resume?

There are five different typefaces: serif, sans serif, script, monospaced, and display. Serif and sans serif typefaces are typically used for body copy or headlines, while script and display typefaces are reserved for headlines. Monospaced typefaces are mostly used for displaying code, but can also be used for body and headline copy in some cases. They were originally used on typewriters.

Coming back to resume, we would strongly recommend job seekers to use serif or sans serif to keep everything professional. Let's have a look at the top 10 fonts to use:

Arial

Type: San-serif

🟢 Pros:

  • The most common font on the web.
  • Classic.

❌ Cons:

  • Doesn’t stand out.

Cambria

Type: San-serif

🟢 Pros:

  • Clear even on a smaller screen.

❌ Cons:

  • Old-fashioned.

Calibri

Type: San-serif

🟢 Pros:

  • Default font.
  • Professional.
  • Easy-to-read.

❌ Cons:

  • Old-fashioned.
  • Not eye-catchy.

Didot

Type: Serif

🟢 Pros:

  • Sign of elegance.
  • Popular in the fashion industry.

❌ Cons:

  • Has to be purchased.
  • Sometimes it may look too fancy.

Garamond

Type: Serif

🟢 Pros:

  • Easy-to-read.
  • Said as a classy font.

❌ Cons:

  • Old-fashioned.

Georgia

Type: Serif

🟢 Pros:

  • Was re-released recently.

❌ Cons:

  • Not eye-catchy.

Helvetica

Type: San-serif

🟢 Pros:

  • Recommended san-serif font for resume.
  • Free on MacBook.

❌ Cons:

  • Has to be purchased if utilized on Microsoft Word.

Times New Roman

Type: Serif

🟢 Pros:

  • Commonly utilized for professional or academic uses.

❌ Cons:

  • Outdated.

Trebuchet MS

Type: San-serif

🟢 Pros:

  • Font developed by Microsoft.
  • Could be used easily on Google Docs.

❌ Cons:

  • Has to pay for a commercial version.

Veranda

Type: San-serif

🟢 Pros:

  • Clear even on a smaller screen.

❌ Cons:

  • Not eye-catchy.

How to Choose the Correct Font Size for Your Resume

Depending on the content of the writing, you might want to use different font sizes. This is because some information needs to be highlighted more than others, so they might need to be written in bigger font size on a resume.

Refer to the information below to know the best font size for different resume contents.

🖋 Name

By letting your recruiter remember your name, you would get a higher chance of achieving the job. Hence, remember to make your name stand out. Since your name is usually on the top of your resume, you could make your resume font size for your name at the size of 18 to 20.

🖋 Resume Header

Other than your name, your title, address, phone number, and email address, etc. would usually be put on the top too. For the resume font size of your header, range the font size between 11 to 14 depending on how important you consider your header is towards the employer.

🖋 Headings & Subheadings

Headings and subheadings are what hiring managers look for when they want to find out specific experiences or skills about you. Normally the ideal resume font size for headings and subheadings is from 13 to 16, so hiring managers could find the content that they care more about quickly.

🖋 Body Text

Your body text in resumes is vital. To make it easy for your hiring managers to view your resume, opt for most of your resume font sizes between 10 to 12. By doing so, your whole resume could look more organized.

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How to Pick the Best Font for Your Resume

As aforementioned, resume font is important for your resumes. It would make your resume readable and would attract your hiring manager. After reading all the above, you still don’t know which resume font suits you the best?

Here are some tips for picking out the best font to use for a resume.

✨ Choose a theme.

When you are writing your resume, choose a theme to craft with. You may choose the style by the company you’re applying for so you would look like a good fit for the company. The theme may be modern, traditional, or maybe just clean. Then pick out a resume font that acquires this trait, and use it as your resume font.

✨ Choose between serif or sans-serif resume font.

Serif fonts mean that the letters would end with a little stroke while sans-serif resume fonts may not have those lines. Generally, serif resume fonts are easier to read. However, sans-serif resume fonts are modern and sometimes eye-catching. Hence, pick out the one you think best suits your resume.

✨ Make your resume content fit into one page.

A resume usually only takes up one page. Therefore, you would have to arrange your resume font and size to do so. Changing your resume font type sometimes saves space or gaps between words. If you’d already tried altering your resume font type and size, you could also try to change the resume font margins. 

5 Tips to Create an Attractive Resume

Besides choosing resume font and font sizes, there are still many other ways where you can improve your resume. If you still think your resume isn’t attractive enough, feel free to try and use the following tips:

💡 Craft an eye-catching resume header.

Most employers read resumes from the top. Consequently, designing a rather attractive resume header is helpful. You could try to avoid choosing a classy resume font to make your resume more appealing. But please be aware of not using a fancy resume font or an unreadable resume font.

💡 Switch between sizes for different headings & text types.

Keep note to highlight the important part of your resume by using different resume font types and sizes. If you apply with the same resume font types and sizes, your whole resume may look too consistent. In other words, your resume may look rather boring. Therefore, try to make differences in the sizes of your headings and text types. But please be aware of not being too exaggerating. 

💡 Avoid gimmick fonts.

Although you should make your resume more attractive, it does not mean using fancy resume fonts. It is vital to stay professional. Please avoid using fonts like Scriptina, Monsieur La Doulaise, or Syncopate, since it may confuse your employer and would not be able to show your strengths properly. 

💡 Be consistent with your resume font style choice.

Once you have picked a font for your resume, be consistent with your choice. If you use too many different resume fonts, your resume may look awkward and confusing. Accordingly, your recruiters would have a hard time reading your resume.

💡 Make some color changes.

Though you should try not to use too many different resume fonts, you could try to make some changes to the name, headings, and subheadings of your resume. In that way, your resume could still look attractive but not too distracting. 

Key Takeaways

🔑  Use a clean and professional font.

It’s essential to use an easy-to-read font for resumes. If your resume font is too complex, recruiters may need to take more time to understand the content. If so, some employers may choose not to look through your resume because it is too time-consuming.

🔑  Avoid fancy resume font style.

As mentioned above, creating a clean resume is crucial. Thus, you should also make your resume font style simple. Try not to use ‘thin’ or ‘thick’ font style, for it may seem hard to read for some hiring managers. It is recommended that you could try to stick with one resume font style to make it easy to read.

🔑  Choose an ideal resume font size.

Normally, a standard resume font size is set between 10 to 12. However, the actual resume font size depends on how you compose your resume. The emphasis on your specialty could also determine the size of your resume font. Remember to try not to make your resume font size below 10. If the content is too small, it may also be difficult to be read by the employers.

--- Originally written by Eliana Tschang ---

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