The Best Fonts and Sizes for a Resume
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The look of your resume is as important as the information you include. Our resume builder and free resume templates are fully customizable, giving you the chance to use different resume fonts and treatments to help differentiate yourself for other job seekers.
Read on to learn more about our favorite fonts and different ways to maximize the impact of your resume.
The Best Resume Fonts
Favorite Fonts Featured on our Builder
Our professional resume writers and expert designers partnered together to highlight these professional fonts on our Resume Builder based on their universal appeal and legibility across screens and physical copies.
Category: San Serif
Pros:
A popular choice for online applications. Once the default typeface on many word processors, it’s still a highly recognized and legible font today.
Cons:
Designed at the advent of the digital age, this san serif is not optimized for screen-legibility as other fonts designed specifically for the age of internet.
Category: San Serif
Pros:
This low-contrast typeface relies on rounded square shapes to optimize the amount of text in a limited text. This makes it perfectly suited for a resume’s short-length and bulleted approach to providing information.
Cons:
Although the compressed method of providing content is ideal for a resume, this typeface can make long text look cluttered and isn’t suited for a matching cover letter.
Category: Serif
Pros:
A modern style serif found under most Microsoft services, this font features a variety of stylized fonts that make it an effective tool for creating visual borders and page breaks.
Cons:
As a Microsoft-exclusive font, your document may convert to an alternate font and adjust your resume format.
Category: San Serif
Pros:
This is a geometric font that was designed to reflect vintage typefaces while using a screen-friendly design. This font is perfect for applicants for traditional careers in banking, finance or law.
Cons:
As a thinner font, lengthier texts can strain your eyesight. We recommend you use this font for headers and your contact information rather than your entire resume.
Category: Serif
Pros:
This vintage font was designed to mimic classic typewriter fonts. As one of the older fonts on the markets, it’s highly recognizable and readily available on most major word processors.
Cons:
This font uses thin lines and serif designs, making it difficult to read lengthy texts. It’s better suited as an accent font for section headings.
Category: San Serif
Pros:
Originally commissioned by the Mozilla Organization for their browser tool, this font uses wide symbols and rounded edges to create a soft, legible text.
Cons:
The wider font can reduce the number of characters you can use on each line, limiting the amount of information you can include on your resume.
Category: Serif
Pros:
The tall letters, thin strokes, thickened serifs and sharp lines makes this one of the rare serifs that’s screen-friendly and easily read.
Cons:
As a vintage font that is similar to Times New Roman, this font can be considered a safe and conventional choice. However, you should reconsider using it when applying to a creative field.
Category: San Serif
Pros:
Inspired by a civil typeface invented by Peter the Great of Russia, this typeface includes standard Western, Central European, and Cyrillic characters, making it the ideal font choice for international career opportunities.
Cons:
This is a limited font family with few treatments available, reducing the amount of design details that you can incorporate into your resume.
Popular serif fonts
If you opt to download one of our free resume templates and plan on submitting a physical copy of your application, your best choice of font should be a serif as they are ideal because the “little feet” mimic a lined paper, making it easier for hiring managers to skim a document. These are the four best serif fonts for your resume.
Category: Serif
Pros:
The recognized standard for professional and academic documents, Times New Roman is a natural and safe choice for first-time applicants or job seekers in the legal, banking, or accounting industries.
Cons:
It’s familiarity and automatic status can make an applicant look stale or uncreative. Avoid this font if you’re pursuing a job in a new or fast-paced industry.
Category: Serif
Pros:
Among print designers, this font is considered timeless, legible and one of the best fonts. Use this font if you’re applying to conventional jobs in timeless industries like publishing, construction or mass media.
Cons:
Because of it’s slender and detailed appearance, the font can appear heavily pixelated and lose defined lines on a screen.
Category: Serif
Pros:
Originally designed for the launch of Windows Vista, this modern font was designed to render across various screens, making it a rare screen-friendly serif font.
Cons:
As a thinner font, it can be difficult to read if you opt for a size smaller than 12-14.
Popular sans serif fonts
Although a serif font is ideal for physical resumes, your best bet when applying online should be a sans serif font because of their simple design which reduces eye strain while reading on a screen.
Category: San Serif
Pros:
This simple font is universally loved and highly recognizable. The tight spacing and thick letters make it a dense, legible text.
Cons:
After a branding craze in the early 2000, Helvetica is widely considered an overused font in graphic design circles. Consider a different font if you're interested in marketing, design, or advertising opportunities.
Category: San Serif
Pros:
As the screen-friendly successor to Times New Roman, this compact font can fit a lot of information into a small amount of space. It’s ideal for showcasing a lot of work experience into an informative one-page resume.
Cons:
As the default text for Microsoft Word, this font can often look like an underthought choice. We recommend using it in combination with a complimentary serif font to indicate a deliberate decision on your end.
Category: San Serif
Pros:
Verdana is a modern and appealing alternative to the overused Helvetica. It’s thick lines and rounded edges make it an appealing, screen-friendly choice.
Cons:
Verdana is a larger, wider font and can severely limit the amount of information you can provide on a page. We recommend that you reduce the font size to a 9-10 rather than the normally recommended 11-12 font size.
Start your resume journey with our expertly curated list of templates—explore and get started now.
Why Does Font Matter?
Legibility
As mentioned before, some fonts are easier to read on a physical, printed resume while others are specifically designed to help reduce eye-strain from a digital screen. You should carefully weigh the pros and cons of each choice.
Whether you choose to apply in-person to a small or independently owned workplace, dropping off your application materials at a job fair, uploading your documents to an online application program or applying for multiple jobs through an online work board such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn or Monster, you should consider the kind of font you utilize to leave a lasting impression on recruiters.
Professionalism (Traditional fonts vrs creative fonts)
The type of font you chose needs to reflect the work environment and perceived requirements of an open job opportunity.
For example, conventionally recognized fonts like Times New Roman and Arial are best suited for traditional careers in law, medicine, civil service, academics or infrastructure. As these careers follow strict rules and regulations and aren’t driven by fast-paced innovation, a stoic and familiar font reflects the same attitudes as most employees within these industries.
However, a creative, unfamiliar or less recognized font choice such as Verdana, Badoni, or Fira aligns better with industries that require alternate forms of thinking, frequent innovation, or constant social experimentation such as marketing, venture capital, technology, sales or engineering.
How to Choose the Right Font for Your Resume
Traditional
Choose a highly recognized and standardized font such as Times New Roman, Arial or Garamond if you’re applying to a career in the following traditional fields:
- Administrative Support
- Agriculture
- Business
- Construction
- Education
- Financial
- Social Service
- Food Preparation and Service
- Healthcare
- Information Technology
- Maintenance and Repair
- Legal
- Military
- Production
- Protective Service
Modern
A modern font such as Helvetica, Proxima Nova or Bodoni MT may be suited to modern career opportunities that follow most conventional business practices but engage in some creative or innovative behaviors such as the following:
- Administrative Support
- Architecture
- Arts and Design
- Business (ideally new technology)
- Entertainment and Sports
- Legal
- Management
- Media and Communication
- Personal Care and Service
- Sales
Creative
Fonts such as Verdana, Fira Sans or Blinker are best suited for careers in the creative industry, such as:
- Architecture and Engineering
- Arts and Design
- Education, Training and library
- Entertainment and Sports
- Media and Communication
- Sales
Contemporary
A contemporary font such as Century Gothic, Georgia, Garamond or Helvetica successfully combines traditional elements of vintage fonts with the screen-friendly design of modern needs. These fonts are perfect to conventional careers in the following areas:
- Architecture and Engineering
- Arts and Design
- Business and Financial
- Community and Social Service
- Computer and Information Technology
- Education, Training and Library
- Entertainment and Sports
- Food Preparation and Serving
- Healthcare
- Legal
- Life, Physical and Social Science
- Management
- Media and Communication
- Military
- Office and Administrative Support
- Production
- Protective Service
- Sales
- Transportation and Material Moving
Simple
A simple font such as Badoni MT, PT Sans, Cambria or Calibri is a safe and reliable option for any job seeker, regardless of their level of experience. Consider using these fonts if you’re pursuing a career in the following industries:
- Building and Grounds Cleaning
- Business and Financial
- Community and Social Service
- Computer and Information Technology
- Construction and Extraction
- Education, Training and Library
- Farming, Fishing, and Forestry
- Food Preparation and Serving
- Healthcare
- Installation, Maintenance and Repair
- Legal
- Management
- Math
- Military
- Office and Administrative Support
- Production
- Sales
- Transportation and Material Moving
Pairing Fonts and Other Useful Tips
Use multiple fonts
An easy way to elevate your resume is to use multiple fonts on your document. We recommend that you designate one for the main body of your resume and another one for your name and section headings such as your Work History or Education.
- A thick font pairs well with a lean font.
- Use a serif font for headings and san serif for the body of your text
- Use multiple fonts within the same family i.e. Arial, Arial Black, Arial Narrow, or Arial Nova
- Use a designed, legible font for headings and a simple, legible font for the main body of your text
- Avoid clutter and use no more than three fonts or font treatments.
Trust your instincts and experiment with multiple font combinations. These are some of our tried and true font pairings to help you get started.
Adding font treatments
If you’re concerned about clashing fonts or unappealing font combinations, you can opt for alternate font treatments that can help you create special design elements for key sections. For example, you can use bolded text for all of your section headings to indicate that this is the start of a new section or use underlined text to highlight key career accomplishments.
These are a few of the font treatments that you can use to elevate your resume:
- Bold text
- Italicized text
- Underlined text
- Different color choices
Using multiple font sizes
In addition to specialized font treatments, you can use designated font sizes to create visual indications for new sections.
Please remember that the following size suggestions are estimates based on commonly used fonts such as Times New Roman or Calibri. Other fonts might appear smaller or larger than those two –– feel free to use your best judgment to choose the right font size for your resume.
- Name: 24-32 size font
- Headings: 14-20 size font
- Main text: 10-12 size font
Use an Online Tool to Sample Multiple Fonts
Our online Resume Builder features multiple professional fonts and appealing font treatments that can help elevate your resume. Thanks to the pre-written skills and responsibilities related to popular job titles, professionally written summary statements and customizable sections, this builder can help you build an application-ready resume in a fraction of the time.
FAQ
Updated: January 31, 2022
What is the best format for a resume? https://www.hloom.com/resume/formats
There’s no one-size-fits-all resume –– there are three major resume formats that are best suited for each job seeker. Here’s a quick summary of which resume fits which candidates best.
- Best format for career climbers: Chronological
- Best format for strong skills, short-term jobs or work gaps: Functional
- Best format for most job seekers: Combination
How can I include my skills in a resume?
Most resumes feature at least one dedicated skills section, although a skills-based resume like the functional format can feature multiple sections. To successfully use these sections to their full advantage, you need to strike a delicate balance between soft, hard, and technical skills. We researched and compiled a list of the most requested skills on the job market.
How can I make an ATS friendly resume?
Most modern resumes need to impress hiring managers and align with the scanning limitations of applicant tracking software, or ATS. These computer programs auto-scan all resumes for specific skills, experience, or keywords before forwarding them to hiring managers. Elevate your interview odds by using these pre-built templates designed to follow ATS-standards.
Four Font-Forward Template Styles You’ll Love
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