The Best Resume Fonts: Which One Should You Choose?

Font choice is a small detail on your resume with an outsized impact. The wrong font both hurts readability and, in some cases, can prevent ATS systems from processing your text correctly. This article covers which fonts are a safe choice and which ones to avoid.

Serif or Sans-Serif?

• Serif fonts (fonts with small strokes at the ends of letters — Georgia, Garamond, Cambria, and similar) give a traditional, formal impression. A good choice for more conservative fields like academia and law.
• Sans-serif fonts (clean-lined — Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Lato, and similar) look more modern and clean. A common choice in fields like tech, marketing, and design.

Either family looks professional when used correctly — what matters most is consistency and readability.

Safe Font Choices

The following fonts are both readable and, because they're installed on nearly every computer, carry low risk of formatting breaking:

• Calibri — Microsoft Word's default, clean and modern.
• Arial — the most common and safest sans-serif option.
• Helvetica — similar to Arial, a bit more refined.
• Georgia — a readable serif font that's comfortable on-screen too.
• Garamond — a classic, elegant serif font that's useful when you need to fit more text on the page.
• Lato — a modern, soft-lined sans-serif font.
• Cambria — a common, professional serif option in Word.

What Should You Avoid?

• Novelty/decorative fonts (Comic Sans, Papyrus, and similar) — they don't inspire confidence in a professional document.
• Overly thin or overly ornate fonts — hard to read at small point sizes.
• Uncommon fonts not installed on most systems — if not embedded in the PDF, they can appear different (and sometimes broken) on the reader's computer.
• Using more than one font within the same resume — using one font for headers and another for body text creates a cluttered look; at most two complementary fonts (one for headers, one for body) is enough.

Size and Line Spacing

• Body text: A readable size between 10-12 points.
• Headers: 14-16 points, can be bold.
• Line spacing: 1.0-1.15, prevents the text from looking cramped.
• Margins: Roughly 0.5-1 inch, lets the page breathe.

Conclusion

Font choice is a matter of readability and consistency more than flash. Choosing a common, clean font and keeping size and spacing balanced is the safest path for both a human eye and ATS systems. You can find the rest of your resume's structure in How to Write a Resume.