The Best Fonts for Your Resume in 2020

jobscan.co/blog/best-fonts-resume-ats-recruiter

Molly Nevins, Hannah Craig July 16, 2020

What makes a great resume font? Readability and ATS-friendliness. Of course your
resume’s content counts for much more than your font choice, but choosing a font that’s
easy to read on any screen is a great way to make your resume more accessible to
recruiters and hiring managers.

Below, we’ve listed 10 modern resume fonts that are easy on the eyes and friendly to
applicant tracking systems.

10 Modern, ATS-Friendly Resume Fonts

An important reminder: keep it simple. As a general rule, recruiters don’t care which
fonts you use, as long as your resume is easy to read on a screen.

Stay away from script fonts or any other fonts that recruiters may perceive as
unprofessional. Focus on your resume’s content—on what makes you a standout
candidate—and add a last layer of polish with a serif or sans serif font (or a combination
of the two). Here are our top picks.

1. Garamond
Garamond is a group of old-style serif fonts often used in print publishing. It’s a French
Renaissance font, so not technically “modern” but it does have many contemporary
digital interpretations, such as Adobe Garamond (seen below). It is an elegant, regal,
and easy-to-read typeface. A great resume font for the wordsmiths out there.

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2. Calibri
Calibri became a go-to font with the rise of Microsoft Office. It was released to the
public in 2007 and quickly became the most common replacement for Times New
Roman. This font is incredibly familiar and a great font to use when you want a
recruiter’s eyes to pass right over design and get to the content.

3. Cambria
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Cambria was commissioned by Microsoft in 2004 and included with Windows and
Office. It is a blockier serif font designed to read well on screen. Full stops are square
rather than circular. Cambria, while easy to read on screen and ATS compatible, may
not be available if a recruiter is using a Mac. In these cases, the font may be replace with
a metric-compatible typeface such as Google Font’s Caladea.

4. Georgia
The Georgia font was made for the internet. In the nineties, webmasters needed a
typeface that worked on all screens, at all resolutions. Georgia was designed for these
needs and continues to be one of the most readable fonts. This makes it a great font for
your resume. It’s used widely online and at prestigious publications like The New York
Times.

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5. Helvetica
Helvetica is so popular that on its 50th anniversary, a documentary film was released
chronicling the font’s use in modern design. It has a reputation for representing
corporate dominance, making it a great choice for corporate candidates.

6. Times New Roman

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No doubt you’ve used TNR at some point in your academic or professional career. Many
professors and editors require essays and submissions to be typed in this popular font.
It’s a great resume font because it is both familiar and elegant. Some may claim Times
New Roman is outdated, but it remains the most popular and commonly used font.

7. Arial
Arial is one of the most frequently encountered fonts on the web. It’s another font that
was adopted by Microsoft and introduced as computers became more commonplace.
Chances are you are using Arial font at some point in your day. Like TNR, this font is a
safe and classic way to go.

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8. Palatino
Palatino is an elegant serif font used widely across the world. It works as a great
alternative to Times New Roman for those who have grown tired of the more generic
font.

9. Tahoma

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Tahoma was first released with Windows 95 and has become common in the last 25
years. It has a technical feel to it and is a great option for engineers. Tahoma is often
used as a substitute for Arial and Verdana.

10. Verdana
Verdana is another Microsoft commissioned font designed for screens. Its main purpose
was to be legible on small screens at small resolutions. That makes it a safe font for
resumes.

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Resume Font Size, Italics, and Bolding
Another resume formatting choice to consider is the size of the typeface you choose.

The body of your resume, including headers, should generally be 10 to 12 points, no

matter what typeface you’re using.

Your name at the top of the resume can be a bit larger — 16 or 18 points depending on
how much space you have to play with.

A lot of jobseekers try to squeeze in more information on their resumes by using a small
font size. Remember that when it comes to fonts, the main objective is readability. If a
recruiter has to squint to see your text, they may not make the effort to take a close look.
Make it easy for them.

Italics and Bolding on Your Resume

Don’t overuse emphasis on your resume. It’s fine to bold a section header such as
Summary or Education and also italicize past roles you’ve held, but if you overuse
emphasis, it starts to lose meaning. If everything is emphasized, then nothing is
emphasized.

Stick to bold and italics for emphasis on your resume. Other methods might not scan or
convert well through an ATS or make your resume look busy and crowded, decreasing
the chances a recruiter or hiring manager will want to read it.

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Also avoid underlining, since in the digital era underlines are usually associated with
web links. On top of this, some typefaces don’t play well with underlines, meaning
lowercase letters like g, j, or q might not scan or convert correctly within an ATS.

Find Out if Your Resume Font and Formatting are ATS-Ready

Scan your resume with the Jobscan resume checker below. You’ll receive a report with
optimization tips for any job.

Once you’ve got your resume curated for the specific role you’re applying for, it’ll be
much easier to fit your text in at the optimal resume font size.

Other Resume Font and Formatting Dos and Don’ts

Don’t use more than two fonts on your resume

Be sparing with the use of a secondary font. A good use of two fonts would be a serif
typeface (e.g., Garamond) for your name, then a sans serif (e.g., Helvetica) typeface for
the body of the resume. Using more than two fonts starts to make your resume look
aimless, or even worse, like a ransom note!

Don’t try to use line spacing adjustments to get more space

This will also make your resume look crowded and be difficult to read by ATS robots
and recruiters. You can play with margins, but be careful not to overcrowd the page.

Don’t bother with color for a digital resume

It just isn’t worth the effort. Certain colors or shades sometimes appear as invisible to
an ATS and others can be challenging for hiring managers or recruiters to read. Save
graphics, colors, and headshots for your CV or in-depth resume that you take with you
to an interview.
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Do get fresh eyes to look over your resume

A good time for this is after you’ve redone your typeface, font, and formatting. A friend
or family member looking over your resume can give you feedback about its readability
and appearance. They can also help point out any typos or problems you might have
missed – it’s easy to overlook errors when you’ve been looking at the same document
for ages!

Beat the ATS Robots, Reach the Humans

Simple details like typeface, font size, and where to bold your resume might initially
seem like they aren’t worth focusing on. But today ATS robots scan through hundreds of
resumes, recruiters only spend seconds on a flood of applications, and hiring managers
need to choose between highly competitive candidates.

Correct typography and formatting put you a step above other candidates and give you
a much better chance to get your resume past an ATS and into the hands of a real
person. Why not take any advantage you can get?

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