How to Choose the Best Resume Font

Updated June 17, 20221.9k

The font choice for your resume can have a surprising impact on how well the resume is accepted in general. Which font is the best option for your resume?

Best Fonts for Resume

When you’re choosing every element of your resume, one of the things that you might not consider is your resume font. However, knowing the difference between a good font and a bad font can make your resume look significantly better, potentially getting you a job interview over other job seekers. Here’s what you need to know about fonts that are more likely to shine on a professional resume.

What Elements Will Create a Great Resume Font?

First of all, what are recruiters looking for in a resume font? Hiring managers don’t like or dislike your font choice for completely illogical or strictly personal reasons; there are reasons that your default font may or may not work for a job application. Typically, hiring managers are looking for three things:

Legibility

The readability of your resume font is a huge point in its favor. If you’re using a font that looks like it’s in cursive or another font that has more in common with graphic design than a professional book, then hiring managers may have difficulty reading your resume. That will make it more likely that they’ll move on to the next job application without giving yours a fair shake.
Simplicity

You also shouldn’t be going for an overly complex resume font. After all, you’re just using this font as a way to get across hugely important information. A nice, clean font will do more for your resume than a modern font with lots of flourishes. A good resume just needs to stand out and look beautiful.
Professionalism

Lastly, you need to use a resume font that looks professional and not amateurish or childish. Fonts like Papyrus and Comic Sans have their place, but that place is not on a resume. They look very childish and silly, which will not leave a great first impression.

A List of the Top Resume Fonts Available

Now that you know what font style employers are looking for, what are some of the best fonts to fulfill those needs? Here are a few common fonts that you’ll see for resumes.

Times New Roman
Arial
Calibri
Helvetica
Garamond
Georgia
Cambria
Verdana
Tahoma
Trebuchet MS
Book Antiqua
Didot
Lato

Generally, the best choice is a simple serif or sans-serif font. You should also either use a font that you can be fairly sure is well-represented on both Microsoft and Mac OS computers. You can also save your resume as a PDF, so the font styles are saved in the document.

Resume Font Size Recommendations

Font size can be just as important as the actual font that you choose for your resume. If your font is too small, then you risk making it difficult to read; if it’s too leage, then your resume can look clunky and out of place. Here are the sizes that most career experts recommend for your professional fonts:

Name

Your name goes at the very top of your resume, and it’s one of the things the hiring manager should see first. That’s why most resume writing experts recommend around 18-point or 22-point font. It’s large enough to easily see it without having it stand out too much.
Main Body

For your overall font size throughout a resume or cover letter, you might need to play around with the font size depending on how much information you need to include on the resume and how clear your particular font is. A sans-serif typeface is more likely to show up well on computer screens in smaller sizes than a serif typeface. Sizes between 10.5 to 12 are generally accepted, with a size 12 typically considered to be the standard.
Headings

When going through your resume as a resume writer, you’ll also have a number of resume headings. These include your resume objective or resume summary, your work experience section, your skills section, and your education section. To set these headers apart from the rest of your resume, use a font size around two points larger than your body summary; so for example, if you’re using an 11-point font for your body, then use a 13-point font for the headings.

FAQ: Best Fonts for Resume

Is it okay to use multiple fonts in a resume?

It can be, depending on how you’re able to combine different fonts. One of the best ways to combine multiple fonts into a single resume is to use the resume builder at ResumeNerd. This builder will automatically create different styles for your resume, which may incorporate more than one font style. With this tool, you’ll get a great appearance for a resume without having to choose your own fonts.

Will the font I choose impact my ATS score?

It depends. An ATS, or applicant tracking system, is a system that automatically checks resumes for keywords and information before a hiring manager does, allowing them to weed out resumes that don’t look like they have a wide enough skill set for the job. If your resume font is difficult for the system to read, then it might automatically reject your resume simply because it can’t understand what you wrote. This is why legibility is so important for resume fonts.

Where can I get font recommendations for my resume?

The resume templates at ResumeNerd are a great place to start if you’re looking for different font options for your resume. Depending on what you want your resume to look like, you can craft a variety of different fonts for your resume. Use this site to get more help with your resume on every level.

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About The Author

Cindi Cervone Carlson

Cindi Cervone Carlson is a Senior Vice President for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Cindi is responsible for developing, delivering, and implementing a dynamic, world-class organization dedicated to delivering outplacement consulting, training, support, and executive coaching. Cindi started her career at Challenger as a client who had lost her job. Over the past nine years, she has risen from an entry-level, part-time professional to Senior Vice President.