The best font for a resume: eight safe choices
A resume font has two jobs. It must be easy for a person to read quickly, and it must be a face that a screening system and the reader's computer can show without substituting something else. That favours familiar faces over fashionable ones. The choice between a sans serif and a serif is mostly taste, so decide by the feel you want and by how much text you need to fit.
| Typeface | Style | Body size that fits one page | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arial | Sans serif, neutral | 10 to 11 pt | Almost any job; the safest default |
| Calibri | Sans serif, slightly narrow | 11 pt | Word users; fits more per line than Arial |
| Helvetica | Sans serif, crisp | 10 to 11 pt | Design, marketing and tech resumes |
| Lato | Sans serif, warm | 10 to 10.5 pt | Modern layouts where you want a friendlier tone |
| Times New Roman | Serif, compact | 11 to 12 pt | Law, academia, government and finance |
| Georgia | Serif, wide and sturdy | 10 to 11 pt | Readable on screen; takes more room than Times |
| Garamond | Serif, light and small on the page | 11 to 12 pt | Editorial and creative jobs; looks small, so go up a size |
| Cambria | Serif, built for screens | 10 to 11 pt | A Word-safe alternative to Georgia |
One rule beats the list. Use one family for the whole resume, or two at most (a heading face and a body face), and never a decorative script. Every typeface above works; a common mistake is picking a face your reader's machine does not have, which silently swaps it for something wider and pushes your last line onto a second page. Exporting to PDF embeds the font and avoids that, which is also what you should send unless the ad asks for a Word file.
What size font for a resume
The usual resume font size for body text is 10 to 12 points, and 11 is the safe middle. Go below 10 and a reader on a laptop or a printout struggles; go above 12 and you spend your one page on air. Names can be larger, around 16 to 20 points, and section headings 12 to 14 points, often in bold or small capitals. The relationship matters more than the exact numbers: the body should be clearly the smallest regular text, the headings clearly the next step up, and the name clearly the largest thing on the page.
If your resume only fits at 9 points, shrinking the font is the wrong fix. Cut the oldest or weakest lines instead, because a reader who needs to lean in will skip the page. The guide to the one-page resume covers what to remove first.
Resume margins, line spacing and bold
Margins of 0.5 to 1 inch on every side are usual: a full inch looks calm and professional, and half an inch is the lowest that still looks deliberate. Set line spacing between 1.0 and 1.15, with a little extra space before each section heading and between jobs, so the sections separate without ruled lines. Use bold for your name, section headings, job titles and nothing else, and avoid underline, italics on whole paragraphs and text in colour. Two weights of one typeface are enough to build the whole hierarchy.
Resume paper and page size, including India and the Philippines
Most resumes are now read on a screen, so the page size matters less than the margins. The usual sizes are US Letter (8.5 by 11 inches) in the United States and Canada, and A4 (210 by 297 mm) in India and most other countries. In the Philippines, employers commonly ask for short bond paper, which is the same size as Letter, so a Letter-size file prints correctly there. If an employer states a size, follow it.
If you do print a resume for an interview, a heavier white or ivory paper in place of thin copier paper looks more careful, and a clean black-and-white copy is enough. Print one spare copy and carry them flat in a folder.
What CVEmber uses
CVEmber's font control offers Helvetica, Georgia, Merriweather, Source Sans, Lato and EB Garamond beside each template's own face. In the exported PDF, Helvetica prints in Arimo and Georgia in Tinos, which share the letter widths of Helvetica and Times, and every font is embedded in the file so it looks the same on any computer. The PDF page is US Letter size. Body sizes in the templates run at about 9 to 10.5 points, with a compact setting for tight pages, and you can change the typeface without redoing the layout.
Sources
Checked on 12 October 2026.