Choosing the best ATS-friendly font for your resume is half the battle. The other half is ensuring you have the best resume format that meets your job search goals and makes recruiters and hiring managers want to stick around and know more about you.
In this post, we will cover the following:
- Modern, ATS-friendly fonts for your resume in 2022
- Best resume format for your job search
- Best resume formatting tips to help you land the job
So, what is the best font to use for a resume?
- Garamond
- Calibri
- Cambria
- Georgia
- Helvetica
- Times New Roman
- Arial
- Palatino
- Tahoma
- Verdana
Below, we’ll dive in deeper with why these 10 fonts are safe choices for your resume and friendly to applicant tracking systems.
Let’s get started!
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.
When writing your resume, 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 has 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.
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 aCalibri 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
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. While easy to read on-screen and ATS compatible, Cambria may not be available if a recruiter is using a Mac. In these cases, the font may be replaced 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 an excellent font for your resume. It’s used widely online and at prestigious publications like The New York Times.
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
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.
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
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.
Now that you’ve chosen the best font for your resume, you have to decide which resume format to use. The best resume format is easy to scan and highlights the most critical information that a recruiter and potential employer might want to know.
Best Resume Format for your Job Search
Choosing the best resume format is a critical part in crafting a strong resume that will land you your dream job. Your resume format affects how applicant tracking systems (ATS) parse your resume. It also plays a massive role in getting your resume noticed and read by recruiters and hiring managers.
Although several resume formats are available and people format resumes differently, the three most commonly used are Chronological Resume Format, Functional Resume Format, Combination Resume Format. In this section, we will also briefly cover a resume variation called Targeted Resume. Each of these formats serves a specific purpose and showcases different parts of your professional history and work experience.
- Chronological Resume
This is the most popular and commonly used format as it highlights your work experience and shows your career growth as a professional. With this format, you list your work experience by job title, starting with your most recent job.
The Chronological Resume is the best resume format for
- job seekers who have a lot of experience and accomplishments directly related to the position they’re applying for
- job seekers who have steady growth in their career
- job seekers with steady employment and little to no employment history gaps
This resume format is best used to make a strong impression on recruiters and potential employers who put a premium on work experience and longevity.
- Functional Resume or Skills-based Resume
On a functional resume format, instead of showcasing your work experience, the spotlight is on your skills, qualifications, and on what you can do. Work history is listed at the bottom of the resume but with minimal detail.
The Functional or Skills-based resume is the best resume format for
- job seekers who are switching careers
- job seekers who have little to no previous work experience
- job seekers who have gaps in their employment history
- job seekers who have worked several different jobs and have a diverse skillset
- job seekers who have skills directly related to the position but who have little previous work experience relevant to the job
- Combination Resume or Hybrid Resume
The Combination resume marries the important elements of both the chronological and functional resume formats. With this, you can highlight your top skills and accomplishments (as with the functional resume format) while detailing your work experience and career growth (as with the chronological resume format).
The Combination Resume is the best resume format for
- job seekers who have a few years of work experience
- job seekers who are changing careers
- job seekers who have career paths that aren’t traditional
- job seekers who already had career changes before
- Targeted Resume
This is a resume format variation where you tailor your resume to the specific requirements of the job you are applying for. You have to research and understand the company, its culture, and what it might expect from you should you land the job. With the targeted resume, you focus on the important skills and experiences required for the job and you strategically incorporate relevant experiences and skills to match the requirements. To increase your chances of getting an interview, you should also make sure that your resume contains relevant keywords and is tailored for the ATS.
The Targeted Resume is generally best for everyone since tailoring a resume to a specific job posting pays high dividends. This resume format is also best for job seekers applying for highly competitive roles.
Check if your resume is optimized for the job you are applying for with Jobscan Resume Optimization Tool.
Now that you have decided which font and resume format to use, here are a few resume formatting tips and guidelines to help you craft a winning resume that gets read by recruiters and hiring managers.
Best Resume Formatting Tips and Reminders
Choose the best resume format for you
You need to evaluate your career history and work experience and be clear about your future goals. Then you need to decide on the resume format you are going to use for your resume. Quick reminder: make sure your resume is customized to the job you are applying for.
Tailoring your resume to fit the needs of the specific job you are applying for takes time and extra effort. To save you time and energy, use Jobscan’s Premium Power Edit feature. With this tool, you can just edit your formatted resume directly and see your resume score increase in real time.
Use proper font sizes
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 job seekers 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.
Don’t overuse emphasis (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.
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 scan tool 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.
For even more help, take a look at our free resume templates.
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.
Do not include fluff and irrelevant information. Do not lie.
According to Cultivated Culture in their study of more than 125,000 resumes, fluffy content actually dilutes a resume’s value. Yet, 51% of resumes included buzzwords, and jargons which, as the author would note, just “make your readers want to pull their hair out.” No matter how tempting it is to stuff your resume with cliches, buzzwords, and whatnots, keep in mind that a resume must be professional and relevant.
Most importantly, do not fabricate work experiences and lie in your resume.
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 resume format, 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?
