What is the best font to use in a resume?
The best fonts for a resume are clean, professional, and easy for both people and software to read.
Safe choices include Calibri, Arial, Aptos, Garamond, Georgia, and Helvetica, set between 10 and 12 points.
Choose one readable font and avoid decorative or script styles that recruiters and applicant tracking systems can misread.
That is the short answer but the longer answer is that informed sources often disagree on the single best font.
Some experts rank Times New Roman among the worst resume fonts, while others place it first.
Helvetica draws the same split.
No single font wins for everyone, so this guide focuses on the principles that hold up.
Along the way it covers:
- The most commonly used resume fonts, with the case for and against each
- Whether to use a serif or a sans serif font
- Recommended font sizes, and why size matters
- Other considerations, including print versus digital, and your target industry
By way of definition, if this guide mentions CV fonts, remember that a CV is simply what most of the English-speaking world outside the US and Canada calls a resume.
Top 9 commonly used good resume fonts
These fonts are widely considered good choices for a resume.
1. Aptos
A modern sans serif designed for on-screen reading, Aptos became the default typeface across Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel in 2024.
As the current Microsoft 365 default, it is clean, widely available, and an up-to-date choice for a resume.
2. Arial
A popular and safe modern sans serif, Arial is valued for clean lines and strong legibility.
Some argue it is little more than a variation on Helvetica, and its sheer popularity can make it look common.
3. Calibri
A highly readable sans serif and Microsoft Office's default typeface from 2007 until 2024, Calibri remains a safe, familiar resume choice.
Its one drawback is ubiquity, so it may not give your resume a distinctive look.
4. Cambria
A serif font commissioned by Microsoft and designed for computer monitors, Cambria works well at small sizes.
Created in 2004, it reads as slightly traditional, which suits formal documents.
5. Garamond
Whether you call it timeless or simply old, Garamond is a classic serif with roots stretching back roughly 500 years, and it still looks distinctive on the page.
6. Georgia
This attractive serif is a natural alternative to Times New Roman.
It reads well even at small sizes, though its popularity means it will not make your resume stand apart.
7. Lato
A modern sans serif available in the Google Fonts library, Lato was designed to feel serious but friendly.
It is not a standard Microsoft Word typeface, so confirm it is available before you rely on it.
8. Trebuchet MS
Commissioned by Microsoft, this elegant sans serif was built to look good on a screen.
To use its full feature set you would need Trebuchet Pro.
9. Verdana
A popular sans serif designed by Microsoft for computer screens, Verdana is a dependable resume choice, though some feel it looks similar to Arial or Helvetica.
Top 5 situational resume fonts
These fonts are recommended by some sources and discouraged by others, so use them with care.
Think about whether they suit the job and the employer.
- Helvetica: This classic sans serif is probably the world's most recognized font, and it even features in a documentary of the same name. Its ubiquity is the main caution, as many feel it is simply too common.
- Times New Roman: Once the default typeface for Microsoft Office, this old-school serif is loved by some for its familiarity and dismissed by others for the same reason. It can read as old-fashioned in modern, screen-first hiring.
- Roboto, Open Sans, and Ubuntu: As noted above, these are common technology fonts popularized by Google and other large tech companies. They are clean and legible, but they can feel too technical for more traditional employers.
Worst 6 fonts to use in your resume
Almost all sources advise against these fonts for a resume.
Extreme caution applies.
- Brush Script: This and other typefaces made to look like cursive handwriting may suit a wedding invitation, but they do not belong on a resume.
- Century Gothic: This hairline-thin font can be interesting to look at, but it is not a strong choice for a resume.
- Comic Sans: Designed to imitate comic-book lettering, Comic Sans inspires rare agreement among font experts. It does not belong anywhere near a resume.
- Courier: Modeled on an old typewriter, Courier may appeal to nostalgia, but its monospacing gives thin letters like i the same width as wide letters like w, which wastes space and hurts readability.
- Impact: Anything resembling this over-bold, heavily condensed font will save recruiters time, because they will set it aside at a glance.
- Papyrus: Unless you are designing a poster for a film about ancient Egypt, leave this decorative font out of your resume.
What category of fonts should I use for a resume: serif or sans serif?
Serif and sans serif are the two broad font categories, and both can work on a resume.
Serif fonts carry small decorative strokes, called serifs, at the ends of their letters.
In most serif fonts the letter l rests on a small horizontal base with a short stroke at the top.
Sans serif fonts drop those strokes, so the letters look plainer and more modern, closer to the way most people are taught to write.
Sans serif fonts are often seen as cleaner and less cluttered, and many designers consider them more readable on screens, while serif fonts are often preferred in print.
Agreement is not universal, but on balance most experts lean toward sans serif fonts for resumes, especially when the document will be read on a screen.
Which resume fonts are ATS-friendly?
ATS-friendly resume fonts are standard, widely installed typefaces with even, uncluttered letterforms, including Calibri, Arial, Aptos, Cambria, Georgia, Garamond, Helvetica, Verdana, and Times New Roman.
Applicant tracking systems read the text in your file rather than its visual design, so these common fonts come through accurately, while decorative, script, and heavily stylized fonts can confuse the parser and drop information.
This matters more than most job seekers expect.
The software reads your font before a recruiter ever opens the file, and 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies use an applicant tracking system, so a common, well-supported font keeps your name, titles, and dates intact through that first automated pass (Resume.io, Resume Statistics, 2025).
Font choice is one of the quieter decisions you make when you write your resume, yet it is the first thing the software judges.
Amanda Augustine, Resume.io's resident career expert, keeps the advice simple: an easy-to-read font helps a resume stay "professional and easy to digest."
To stay safe with software and people alike:
- Choose one common, widely installed font so every system renders it the same way.
- Keep that font consistent across your headings, body, and contact details.
- Avoid the script, handwriting, and display fonts listed in the red-tier section.
- Save and send your resume as a PDF, unless the employer asks for a Word file, so your formatting travels intact.
How do you choose the right font for your resume?
Choose a resume font by weighing three things in order: legibility, the medium it will be read in, and your industry.
Readability comes first every time.
A font that tires the reader or looks noisy on a full page works against you, no matter how well it suits your field.
- Legibility: Make sure the font stays clean once the page fills with text. If your own eyes tire reading a dense section, a hiring manager's will too.
- Medium: Check how the font looks on screen and on paper. Most resumes are read on screen now, but if you will hand one over in person, confirm it holds up in print.
- Industry: Match the tone of the font to the field, using the guide below.
| Industry | Fonts that fit |
|---|---|
| Corporate, law, and finance | Times New Roman, Cambria, Georgia |
| Business, marketing, and tech | Calibri, Arial, Aptos, Helvetica |
| Creative and design | Garamond, Lato, Roboto |
| Academic and research | Cambria, Georgia |
What font size should you use on a resume?
The best font size for a resume, in most cases, is between 10 and 12 points for body text, with larger sizes for headings and your name.
Around 24 percent of hiring managers spend under 30 seconds reviewing a resume, so consistent sizing is what keeps your experience legible at a glance (Resume.io, Resume Statistics, 2025).
| Element | Recommended size |
|---|---|
| Body text | 10 to 12 points |
| Section headings | 12 to 14 points |
| Name or title | 16 to 20 points |
Some fonts stay readable at smaller sizes better than others, so experiment within that range.
If your resume does not fit on one page at 12 points, try dropping toward 10, but no smaller.
Always trim the text before you reach for formatting fixes such as shrinking type, reducing margins, or cutting paragraph breaks, and leave enough white space that the page does not feel dense.
Trimming first is also the cleaner way to keep a resume to one page.
Which fonts come pre-installed in Word, Google, and Apple software?
The safest professional fonts are the system defaults already installed on most devices, because they render the same way everywhere.
Common examples include Calibri, Aptos, and Arial in Microsoft Word, Roboto and Lato across Google platforms, and Helvetica on Apple devices.
Sticking to widely installed fonts avoids the surprises that come from custom typefaces.
Word gives you a lot of freedom, but a document can look different on someone else's device than on yours.
A 10-point Arial that looks fine on your computer may look poor on someone else's phone.
To keep your design intact:
- Save and send as a PDF, which locks the layout across devices.
- Choose a font that ships with common software, not a downloaded custom one.
- Confirm the font looks right on both a screen and a printed page.
In many resume builders, professional designers have already paired the right font with each template, which takes the guesswork out.
You pick a template category that matches your occupation, or follow an occupation-specific example guide, and you are ready to write.
Resume.io offers professionally formatted templates with pre-selected fonts and sizes if you would rather skip the font decision entirely.
Key takeaways
- No single font is best for every resume, and sources even disagree on whether serif or sans serif makes a stronger impression.
- Readability comes first, for human recruiters and applicant tracking systems alike.
- Dependable, ATS-friendly choices include Calibri, Aptos, Arial, Garamond, and Georgia.
- Body text works best between 10 and 12 points, with larger sizes for headings and your name.
- Match the font to your industry and to whether the resume is printed or read on screen.
- Steer clear of decorative, script, and display fonts that software can misread.
Frequently asked questions
Here are quick answers to the most common questions about choosing a resume font.
Below are the questions that come up most when people pick a font for their resume.
What is the most professional font for a resume?
Calibri, Aptos, Garamond, Georgia, and Helvetica are among the most professional resume fonts.
They are widely recognized, easy to read on screen and in print, and safe across most industries.
Choose the one that suits your field, then prioritize readability over personal style.
Can you use two different fonts on a resume?
Yes, you can use two fonts on a resume, usually one for headings and one for body text.
Keep it to a maximum of two, and pair them cleanly, such as a serif heading with a sans serif body.
More than two tends to look cluttered and pulls attention away from your content.
Is Aptos a good font for a resume?
Yes, Aptos is a strong, current choice.
It is a clean sans serif and the default font across Microsoft 365, so it is widely available and reads well on screen.
Like other standard fonts, it is straightforward for applicant tracking systems to read.
