Best Font for Your Resume in 2024

By Nilda Melissa Diaz, CPRW, Career Advice Expert •Last Updated: October 03, 2024

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Choosing the best font for your resume can be the difference between standing out to recruiters and being overlooked among a sea of applicants.

Whether you're a recent graduate or a seasoned professional, this guide will help you make informed font choices that can help you land your dream job.

We’ll cover the following topics:

The best font to use for a resume, according to experts.
Which fonts to avoid using on your resume.
How to pick the best resume font for your job application.
Determining the best resume font size.
Incorporating different font colors into your resume.
Customizing your resume font with a resume builder.

Why is Resume Font Important?

Readability: A legible font ensures that your resume is easy to read, allowing hiring managers and recruiters to quickly scan through the document. If the font is difficult to read, it may lead to confusion and potential application rejection.
Professionalism: A professional font choice conveys a sense of professionalism and attention to detail. It shows that you have put effort into presenting your information clearly and professionally, which can make a positive impression on potential employers.
Consistency: Using a consistent and professional font throughout your resume creates a cohesive and polished look. It helps maintain a professional appearance and makes your resume more organized and well-designed.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): Many companies scan and filter resumes using ATS software. Choosing a standard and legible font increases the chances of your resume being correctly parsed and read by these systems. Some complex or decorative fonts may not be recognized by ATS, resulting in formatting issues or your resume being overlooked.
Industry Standards: Certain industries or professions have specific expectations for resume formatting. A legible and professional font that aligns with industry standards can help your resume appear more relevant and suitable for the desired role.

Best Fonts for a Resume

A professional font for a resume showcases your qualifications. Alongside a professional layout, these resume fonts ensure your document is easy to read and scan by the applicant tracking systems (ATS) and hiring managers.

These are the best resume fonts according to our Certified Professional Resume Writers (CPRW).

Arial
Arial is a popular and widely used font for resumes. It has a simple and straightforward design with uniform character widths, making it a good font for resumes that require a professional and polished look. It works great for technology, marketing, business and finance.
Helvetica
Helvetica is a clean, modern and widely recognized sans-serif font that offers a professional and polished appearance. It is known for its simplicity and readability, making it a popular choice for resumes.
Times New Roman
Times New Roman has been around since 1931, first built for newspapers and later transformed into the preferred resume font for candidates in traditional or more conservative industries.
Verdana
Verdana is a modern font known for its readability, especially at smaller sizes, and its uniform character widths. It was designed for on-screen use, making it a popular choice for posting your resume online or sharing digital documents.
Trebuchet MS
Excellent font for resumes packed with information. It has a clean and readable design with a slightly condensed and narrow appearance, which can be helpful if you need to fit a lot of information on your resume. It’s a popular choice for digital documents.
Georgia
Georgia was designed specifically for on-screen reading and has a slightly larger x-height, making it more legible on digital displays. It has a classic and elegant appearance with its curved letterforms and moderate stroke contrast.
Tahoma
Tahoma is a sans-serif font with a modern appearance with a narrower design and tighter spacing between letters than some other sans-serif fonts like Arial or Helvetica.
Saira
Saira is a versatile resume font. It has a distinctive appearance with a balanced mix of rounded and angular letterforms. Saira can be used in headlines, long texts, newspapers, magazines and resumes.
Bodoni
Bodoni has long established itself as a professional and sophisticated font type. First designed in 1798, it has a high contrast between thick and thin strokes that can help create a visually appealing and polished look. Word to the wise: its style may not work well with small font or on certain digital platforms
Palatino Linotype
Palatino Linotype legibility and readability are excellent, even at smaller font sizes. The balanced mix of thick and thin strokes can help create a visually appealing and polished look.

Worst Fonts to Use on a Resume

To effectively showcase your qualifications, avoid these resume fonts, which can detract and distract from your resume.

Heavily stylized fonts

They might look pretty on paper, but applicant tracking systems (ATS) have difficulty reading fonts with too many curves and tails.

Lucida Handwriting
Not recommended for resumes due to legibility, lack of professionalism and potential compatibility issues.
Edwardian Script
Elaborate and intricate, it’ll distract from the content of your resume.
Vladimir Script
Not widely recognized as a professional font, it can be difficult to read.

Unprofessional fonts

There’s a time and place for out-of-the-box font types — your resume isn’t one of them.

Comic Sans
Commonly referred to as a joke, this informal and casual font will give an employer the wrong impression.
Papyrus
Considered outdated or cliché, this ornate letterform is not suited for a professional document.
Courier
This monospace font can create awkward spacing in your resume, plus its typewriter letterform can result in an outdated appearance.

How to Choose the Best Resume Font

With so many font options available, it can be challenging to choose the right one. Below we’ll discuss some key factors to consider when selecting the best font for your resume.

Go for an Easy to Read Font

Choose one of the recognized resume fonts shared above. This will help the hiring manager read your qualifications and ensure they can be parsed by the ATS.

Find a Resume Font to Convey Professionalism

A resume needs to get you the interview. Show you are a consummate professional in your industry with a clean font on your resume. Avoid overly decorative or informal fonts. You’ll be able to show creativity in other ways, like through color or resume icons.

Ensure your Resume Font is Compatible with ATS

More and more companies — 90% of Fortune 500 companies— choose to use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to store and parse their application. A widely available and ATS- compatible resume font will help your application make it through to the right hands.

Use our ATS resume checker to scan your resume and receive instant optimization suggestions to improve your resume score.

Take the Industry and Company Culture into Consideration

When writing a resume, it’s important to research the industry and potential employer to adjust your document to their norms. This applies to resume fonts. Take a look at their website and social presence to learn more about their preferences. Some industries may prefer more creative or unique fonts, while others expect more traditional choices.

Here are some tips to help you choose the right font based on your industry:

Creative industries: If you work in a creative industry, such as graphic design, advertising or fashion, you may have more flexibility in your font choice. Consider using unique or artistic fonts that reflect your creativity and personality. However, make sure the font remains readable and professional.
Traditional industries: For more traditional industries like finance, law or education, it's best to stick with more conservative font choices like Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri. These fonts are easy to read and convey professionalism and reliability.
Tech industries: In tech industries like software development or IT, sans-serif fonts like Helvetica or Verdana can be a good choice because they are modern and easy to read.
Healthcare industries: For healthcare industries like nursing or medicine, serif fonts like Georgia or Cambria can be a good choice because they convey a sense of trustworthiness and reliability.
Writing industries: Serif fonts like Times New Roman or Garamond can be a good choice for writing industries like journalism or publishing because they are classic and easy to read for long periods.

Maintain your Own Personal Branding

Choose a font that aligns with your personal brand and the image you want to portray. If you have a portfolio, consider using a similar or closely aligned resume font to maintain consistency. Don’t forget to also match the colors and any resume icons for a consistent, professional look.

Match the font you use in your resume with the font you use in your cover letter. This gives your application a cohesive and polished look. We recommend using one of our cover letter templates to make a resume and cover letter that match each other.

Best Font Size for a Resume

Follow these standard font sizes for a resume range to ensure your resume remains legible and professional-looking:

Your name: 18-24 point size
Secondary headings: 14-16 point size
Body text and contact information: 10-12 point size

Font sizes smaller than 10 points can strain the eyes, while larger sizes may make the resume appear cluttered and unprofessional.

Remember to maintain consistency in font size throughout your resume to create a cohesive and visually appealing document. Print a copy to verify your resume quality and check in different devices, like your phone and tablet, and different operating systems, like Microsoft Windows and macOS.

Resume Font Style and Size Considerations

Remember these criteria when selecting the right font style and size for your resume.

Keep a Balance Between Content and White Space

A well-balanced resume is visually pleasing and draws the reader's attention to the important sections and information.

When there is a good balance between font size, spacing and white space, the resume looks clean, organized and professional. Striking the right balance can help you effectively communicate the information hierarchy in your resume.

For example, using a slightly larger font size for headers helps to distinguish them from the body text and gives them more emphasis. This allows the reader to quickly scan and locate important sections.

See what your resume should look like for additional design and formatting tips from Certified Professional Resume Writers.

Maintain Consistency Throughout Your Text

Consistency in font size and style is crucial for creating a professional-looking and readable resume that effectively presents your qualifications and experiences to potential employers.

Your resume needs to look cohesive. Find resume examples from your industry.

Consider the Resume length

Determine the resume font size for each section based on the amount of information you want in your resume. You can adjust the font size to fit all of your content onto one or two pages.

For a two-page resume, consider keeping your section headings at a font size of 14 and body text at 10 to fit everything within two pages.

If you have less content to include and want to create a one-page resume, consider a font size in the larger range.

You can also adjust the spacing between lines and paragraphs to make the most of the space available or test out alternative template options, such as a two-column resume, which can help you fit additional information on a single page.

Avoid graphics in your resume. Like unreadable fonts, graphics can make it difficult for ATS to read your resume. We recommend using one of our professional resume templates to eliminate the guesswork of designing and formatting your resume.

Using Color on a Resume Font

Black print on white paper has long been the standard for resume font colors, and it remains the most common, safe and acceptable layout. However, black type is not your only option!

Start by considering the industry in which you are seeking employment. Creative fields tend to be more accepting of color on resumes, whereas more conservative jobs may be less tolerant.

Take a look at the professionally crafted examples below to see how color is strategically used for headers and design elements. We also have a library of 800+ resume examples for additional ideas on how to format your resume.

Incorporate color to emphasize the content you want to bring to the employer’s attention. See more resume tips for additional ways to make your resume stand out.

How to Build a Resume with the Best Resume Font

A resume builder simplifies the resume writing process. Our own Resume Builder can help you create a professional document with the best font for a resume.

Answer a few questions about your career to get started. Then, you can play around with different resume fonts, templates, colors and font sizes. Our Resume Builder will automatically adjust it, showing you how the final product will look.

Already have a resume? Upload it and refresh it with a new layout and optimized content.

Use these features to create your perfect resume:

Job-specific phrases and skills: We provide ready-made content written by Certified Professional Resume Writers tailored to your job title.
Step-by-step guidance: From the resume summary to the work experience section, we give you the advice you need to put your best foot forward.
Easy customization: Choose between the most popular and recruiter-friendly resume fonts. Switch fonts anytime as you write to see which one fits your style.
Multiple download formats: You can easily save and download your resume as a PDF, DOCX or plain text from your desktop or mobile device.

Ready to get started? Choose an ATS-friendly template in the right resume format for your career and add your information.

Key takeaways

The best resume font is easy to read, professional and ATS-friendly.
A simple, recognizable font for resume will showcase your qualifications in a professional light.
A good resume font is unnoticeable, while a bad resume font distracts from your career story.
Avoid fonts like Comic Sans, Lucida Handwriting or custom ones downloaded from the Internet.
Maintain consistent formatting: use 18-24 for your resume header, 14-16 for section headings and 10-12 for resume body copy.
Show your style through color or resume icons.
A resume builder takes the guesswork out of choosing a template and font. It allows you to choose a professionally made template and a professional resume font from a list curated by our resume analysts.

FAQ

Why does choosing the right resume font matter?

The resume font is the vehicle for sharing your skills and experience. A good resume font showcases your qualifications in an easy-to-read document. A bad choice for resume font is a distraction, detracting from your career history.

What are the most common fonts used in resumes?

The most common resume font is Times New Roman. However, it is not the easiest font to read for people with visual and learning disabilities. In January 2023, the U.S. Department of State started phasing out the font for its official and internal documents due to this issue. Other commonly used fonts include Calibri, Helvetica and Arial.

What are the best colors to use for a resume font?

The best resume font color is black. It’s elegant, goes well with every industry, and is easily readable by humans and ATS. If you want to make your name or headings pop, you can use colors like blue, green, beige or even pink — just keep the body text black and make sure it fits your industry.

Can you use more than one font on a resume?

Yes, you can use two different resume fonts. You can use a font for your name and headings and another for the resume body. For example, you can use a serif, like Georgia, for your name and headings and a sans-serif resume font, like Verdana, for the resume’s body.

Is it okay to use bold, italics and underlining in my resume font?

Yes, it is! Keep the text formatting, whether bolding, italicizing, underlining or all caps, to your resume header and section headings. Just make sure not to overdo it, as you’ll lose visual appeal and may even contradict your purpose.

Should I use different font sizes on my resume?

Yes, different resume font sizes will help easily identify your sections. Use these resume font size ranges:

Your name: 18-24 point size
Section headings: 14-16 point size
Body text and contact information: 10-12 point size

Can I use a non-traditional font on my resume?

No. While there are no rules when it comes to choosing a resume font, you risk using a font incompatible with the ATS or the hiring manager’s operating system. Your resume should be legible to the employer. If you want to show creativity, do it through your skills and resume accomplishments.

Can I use a custom or downloadable font for my resume?

No. A universally recognized resume font will be your best bet. This will ensure your resume is readable in the most commonly used operating systems, like Microsoft, Mac and Android. Plus, if the employer uses ATS to store and parse applications, a known resume font will remain the same. Use our resume ATS checker to confirm.

What is the most professional font for a resume?

The most professional font for a resume is one that is polished, clean and easy to read. These professional fonts for your resume are widely recognized:

Arial
Calibri
Georgia
Helvetica

When determining the font for a resume, simplicity and readability are key. Avoid using decorative or unusual fonts, which can be distracting and difficult to read.

Can I use a 10.5-point font size for my resume?

Yes, you can use a 10.5-point font size for your resume if it helps you fit your content onto one or two pages while still maintaining readability. Be sure to choose a font size that is clear and easy to read, even if it means using a slightly larger font size.

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Nilda Melissa Diaz, CPRW

Career Advice Expert

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Nilda Melissa is a Certified Professional Resume Writer who has written for The Washington Post and Latina Style Magazine. She has a master's in Journalism from Columbia University and is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

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