Best Fonts for a Resume

The best font for a resume is clear, professional, and easy to read on a screen. Arial is the safest default for most job seekers, while Calibri, Aptos, Helvetica, Roboto, Georgia, Garamond, Cambria, Times New Roman, and Verdana can all work when they fit your content and the role.

Use a 10–12-point font size for body text, 12–14 points for section headings, and about 16–20 points for your name. The exact setting depends on the typeface, because two fonts at the same point size can look noticeably different. Use the final PDF—not the number in the font menu—as your readability test.

A familiar font can reduce avoidable display problems, but there is no magic “ATS font.” Whether a resume parses cleanly depends more on its structure, headings, selectable text, file type, and the employer's software than on choosing Arial instead of Georgia.

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The 10 best fonts for a resume

Each font below can produce a professional resume. The best choice depends on the tone you want, how much content you need to fit, and whether the font is available in the tool you use to edit and export the document.

1. Arial

Best for: A safe, versatile default across industries

Arial is a familiar sans-serif font with simple letterforms and strong readability at common resume sizes. It does not call attention to itself, which helps the reader focus on your experience.

Its main tradeoff is that it can feel generic. That is usually a reasonable compromise for a resume, where clarity matters more than typographic novelty.

2. Calibri

Best for: A compact, contemporary resume created in Microsoft Office

Calibri has soft shapes and fits a useful amount of text without looking heavily condensed. It became a common business-document font during its long run as the Microsoft Office default.

Calibri may not be installed in every editing environment. If you collaborate across tools, export to PDF and check for substitutions before submitting.

3. Aptos

Best for: A current Microsoft Office look

Aptos replaced Calibri as Microsoft's default Office font. It is a clean sans serif with open shapes designed for screen readability, making it a practical choice for a modern resume.

Because Aptos is newer than Arial or Times New Roman, it may be less available outside current Microsoft products. Confirm the final file renders as expected.

4. Helvetica

Best for: A minimal, design-conscious presentation

Helvetica is a neutral sans serif associated with clean, modern design. It works well when you want a polished resume without decorative details.

Availability is the main constraint: Helvetica is available on many Apple systems but is not included everywhere. Arial or Arimo can provide a similar visual direction when Helvetica is unavailable, although they are different typefaces.

5. Roboto

Best for: Digital-first and technical resumes

Roboto combines a clean structure with open curves, which makes it comfortable to scan on a screen. It suits product, engineering, operations, and other roles where a straightforward modern style feels appropriate.

Roboto can appear slightly informal compared with a traditional serif. Use consistent weights and enough white space to keep the document polished.

6. Georgia

Best for: A readable serif with a warmer tone

Georgia was designed for screen readability and has distinct letterforms even at smaller sizes. It can give a resume a more editorial or established feel without becoming ornate.

Georgia is wider than some other choices, so it may increase line wrapping. If the resume becomes crowded, edit the content before shrinking the text.

7. Garamond

Best for: A classic look and space-efficient copy

Garamond is an elegant serif family that can fit more text than many wide sans serifs. It works particularly well for resumes in education, publishing, law, research, or other contexts where a traditional tone fits.

Its thin strokes can become hard to read when the text is too small or the PDF is viewed on a low-resolution screen. Keep the body copy comfortably sized and check the exported file.

8. Cambria

Best for: A formal resume with strong on-screen readability

Cambria is a sturdy serif designed for business documents and screen use. Its clear shapes and substantial strokes can make longer sections feel structured and dependable.

Like Calibri, Cambria is closely associated with Microsoft Office. If you're sharing it from another platform, export the resume as a PDF and check the final file.

9. Times New Roman

Best for: Conservative fields or an explicitly traditional style

Times New Roman is familiar, compact, and still acceptable on a resume. It can be a sensible choice for legal, academic, government, or other formal applications.

It is also strongly associated with default documents. Use intentional spacing and hierarchy so the resume looks designed rather than unfinished. Tinos offers a metrically similar alternative in some tools, but it is not the same font.

10. Verdana

Best for: Maximum character clarity on screens

Verdana has wide letters, open spacing, and clear distinctions among similar characters. Those qualities support readability, especially for readers scanning on a laptop or phone.

The width makes Verdana less space-efficient. It works best for concise resumes; a dense two-page document may wrap more than expected.

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Serif vs. sans-serif resume fonts

Serif fonts have small finishing strokes on letters. Georgia, Garamond, Cambria, and Times New Roman are common examples. They can give a resume a more traditional, literary, or established tone.

Sans-serif fonts do not have those finishing strokes. Arial, Calibri, Aptos, Helvetica, Roboto, and Verdana tend to feel cleaner and more contemporary, especially on screens.

Neither category is automatically more professional or more ATS-friendly. Choose the style that fits the role and makes your experience easiest to read, then use it consistently throughout the document.

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How to choose the right resume font

If you do not have a strong preference, choose Arial and move on to the content. Recruiters are more likely to notice unclear experience bullets, inconsistent dates, or crowded spacing than a small difference between two professional fonts.

Use these factors when you do want to make a more deliberate choice:

• Tone: Sans-serif fonts such as Arial, Aptos, Helvetica, and Roboto feel contemporary. Serif fonts such as Georgia, Garamond, Cambria, and Times New Roman feel more traditional.
• Readability: Look for open letterforms, visible punctuation, and clear differences among characters such as capital I, lowercase l, and the number 1.
• Content density: Wider fonts can create extra line breaks. Compact fonts can save space, but they should not be reduced until the text becomes difficult to read.
• Availability: A font that looks right on your device can be replaced when someone opens an editable file without that font installed.
• Consistency: Use one font family throughout the resume. Create hierarchy with size, weight, spacing, and capitalization rather than mixing several typefaces.
• Role and brand: A creative or design role may allow more visual personality, but the resume still needs to be easy to scan. A conservative field may favor a familiar serif or neutral sans serif.

The goal is not to make your resume look trendy. It is to make important information—job titles, employers, dates, accomplishments, and skills—easy to find.

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Best resume font size and hierarchy

A practical starting hierarchy is:

• Body text: 10–12 points
• Section headings: 12–14 points
• Name: 16–20 points
• Contact details: The same size as body text or slightly smaller, provided they remain readable
• Line height: Usually around 1.15–1.5, depending on the font and content density

These are ranges, not rigid rules. A 10-point Garamond and a 10-point Verdana do not occupy the same visual space. Review the complete page at 100% zoom, then adjust in small increments.

Do not shrink the resume to 8 or 9 points simply to keep it to one page. Start by removing filler, shortening repetitive bullets, tightening excessive spacing, and prioritizing experience relevant to the target job. A readable two-page resume is stronger than a cramped one-page resume for candidates who need the space.

For more detailed layout guidance, see Teal's guide to resume line spacing and examples of what a resume should look like.

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Are some fonts more ATS-friendly?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) stores, searches, and sometimes parses information from job applications. A familiar, readable font is a sensible choice because it reduces one source of unnecessary formatting complexity. But a font alone cannot guarantee that a system will parse the document correctly, rank it well, or move it to a recruiter.

For a cleaner, more machine-readable resume:

• Use conventional section headings such as “Experience,” “Education,” and “Skills.”
• Keep important information in selectable text rather than placing it inside an image.
• Use a simple reading order and avoid overlapping elements.
• Follow the employer's requested file type.
• Open the exported document and confirm that no characters, bullets, or line breaks changed.
• Tailor the content to the job instead of relying on formatting to improve the match.

Serif fonts are not automatically unreadable to an ATS. Times New Roman, Georgia, Cambria, and Garamond can all work in a clean document. The larger risks are often complex layouts, image-only files, unusual symbols, and exports that alter or flatten the text.

If you want a structured starting point, compare Teal's ATS-friendly resume templates. A template can reduce formatting mistakes, but it still cannot guarantee an outcome in every employer's system.

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Choose a professional font, build a clear hierarchy, and tailor the content for the job you want.

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Resume fonts and typography choices to avoid

Avoid any treatment that makes the resume harder to scan or creates unpredictable output:

• Script, handwriting, or decorative fonts: These can obscure letters and make body copy tiring to read.
• Display fonts at body size: Fonts designed for posters or headlines rarely work well across dense experience sections.
• Ultra-light weights: Thin strokes can disappear on screens, in low-contrast conditions, or when printed.
• Extremely condensed fonts: They save space by sacrificing character recognition and comfortable reading.
• Multiple font families: Mixing fonts usually adds noise without improving hierarchy.
• All-caps paragraphs: Capital letters can work for short section labels, but they reduce readability in longer text.
• Tiny text: If the content only fits after aggressive shrinking, edit the content or use another page.
• Low contrast: Light gray text on white can be difficult to read and may reproduce poorly.

Bold and italics are useful in moderation. Bold can separate job titles or employers; italics can distinguish a short supporting detail. Apply each treatment consistently so the pattern helps the reader navigate.

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Five checks before submitting your resume

1. Read the PDF at 100% zoom. Body text, dates, and contact information should be comfortable to read without zooming in.
2. Check wrapping and page count. Make sure a font substitution did not push one bullet or heading onto an unexpected page.
3. Select and copy text. Paste a few lines into a plain-text editor to confirm the PDF still contains text rather than a flattened image.
4. Review consistency and contrast. Confirm that headings, bullets, dates, weights, and colors follow the same system throughout.
5. Follow the application instructions. Submit PDF, DOCX, or another format only when the employer requests or accepts it.

A resume that looks balanced on a large monitor may feel dense on a laptop or phone. If possible, open the exported file on another device to check for missing fonts or shifted lines.

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How to apply your resume font in Teal

Teal's Resume Builder lets you manage content and presentation in the same resume workspace. In Design Mode, you can choose a template, adjust the font, change line height and list spacing, set margins and paper size, and review the resume preview before exporting.

Use this sequence:

1. Open the resume you want to customize in the Teal Resume Builder.
2. Enter Design Mode and select a resume template.
3. Choose a professional font that fits the tone and density of your resume.
4. Adjust line height, list spacing, and margins instead of shrinking the text first.
5. Inspect every page in the preview and export the final file.
6. Run the five submission checks above before attaching it to an application.

Checked in September 2026, Teal's font menu included Poppins, Arimo, Tinos, Roboto, Roboto Mono, Crimson Pro, Open Sans, and Work Sans—the same options on the free plan and on Teal+. Roboto is an exact match from the list above; Teal labels Arimo “Helvetica-like” and Tinos “Times New Roman-like,” but they are different typefaces. Font options can change, so use the menu in your current workspace as the source of truth.

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Apply a readable font, adjust the spacing, and preview the complete resume before you export.

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Choose clarity over novelty

The right resume font makes your experience easier to read without becoming the main event. Arial is a reliable default, but any of the professional fonts in this guide can work with a clear hierarchy, enough white space, and a clean export.

Choose one font, size it for real-world reading, and spend the rest of your effort on evidence that you can do the job.