What is the best font for a resume?

A clean, widely installed font at a readable size. Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman and Garamond all work, and all five are on this page. Sans-serif fonts (Arial, Calibri) look modern and read well on screen; serif fonts (Georgia, Times New Roman, Garamond) look traditional and suit law, academia and finance. Pick one, and use it for the whole document.

What font size should a resume be?

Body text at 10 to 12 pt. Many faces look right at 11 pt; Arial and Georgia run wide and are comfortable at 10 to 10.5, while Times New Roman and Garamond run small and want 11.5 to 12. Your name can be 18 to 24 pt and section headings 11 to 14 pt. Below 10 pt is hard to read; above 12 pt for body text wastes space.

What margins should a resume have?

Between 0.5 and 1 inch, with 0.75 to 1 inch the most common. Anything under 0.5 inch can be clipped by a printer and looks crowded. If you are a few lines over a page, trim words before you shrink the margins below 0.7 inch.

What line spacing should a resume use?

Between 1.0 and 1.15 for body text, with a little extra space above each section heading and between jobs. Tighter than 1.0 makes lines touch; much looser than 1.3 pushes content onto another page.

Does the font affect an ATS?

Only if the font breaks the text. An applicant tracking system reads the text in your file, not how it looks, so any real font is fine. What does cause trouble is text inside images, decorative symbol fonts for bullets or icons, and unusual fonts that a PDF export replaces. Stay with the standard faces and export a text PDF.

Does this tool store my resume?

No. If you paste your text it stays in your browser and is never uploaded.

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Resume Font, Size and Margin Checker

Try a font, a size, a margin and a line spacing on a real US Letter page and see the page count change as you move the sliders. Paste your own resume text to see how yours lays out, and get a plain check against the usual ranges.

Five fonts: Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman, Garamond
A true-size Letter page with the page break marked
Checks size, margins and spacing against the usual ranges

Try a font, size, margin and spacing

The page below is a real US Letter sheet. Change the settings and watch the page count.

Alex Morgan

Denver, CO · alex.morgan@email.com · (555) 013-2244 · linkedin.com/in/alexmorgan

SUMMARY

Operations manager with 9 years of experience running fulfilment teams across three warehouses. Known for cutting cycle times and keeping teams stable through peak season.

EXPERIENCE

Operations Manager, Northline Logistics, Denver, CO · 2020 to present

Redesigned the inbound receiving workflow, reducing average dock-to-stock time from 14 hours to 9.

Led a team of 22 associates and 3 shift leads; cut voluntary turnover by a third in two years through clearer schedules and a peer-training programme.

Introduced weekly accuracy audits that lifted pick accuracy from 97.1% to 99.4% across 40,000 weekly lines.

Negotiated carrier contracts with four vendors, saving $180,000 a year without affecting service levels.

Shift Supervisor, Northline Logistics, Denver, CO · 2017 to 2020

Supervised 12 associates on the evening shift and hit the daily shipping target on 96% of days.

Built the shift handover checklist now used at all three sites.

Trained 30 new hires on safety, scanner use and quality checks.

Warehouse Associate, Peak Freight, Aurora, CO · 2015 to 2017

Picked, packed and loaded up to 250 orders per shift with a 99% accuracy rate.

Cross-trained on forklift and inventory counts; promoted within 18 months.

EDUCATION

B.S. Business Administration, Colorado State University · 2015

SKILLS

Warehouse management systems (SAP EWM, Manhattan) · Lean and 5S · Excel and SQL reporting · Carrier negotiation · Team coaching · Forklift certified

CERTIFICATIONS

Lean Six Sigma Green Belt · 2021

OSHA 30-Hour General Industry · 2019

Preview at true Letter size (8.5 × 11 in), scaled to fit. Your word processor may break a line or two differently.

Font: Calibri
Compact sans-serif, the Word default for years; 10.5 to 12 pt. All five faces read cleanly in an ATS because they are real text in standard fonts.
Size 11 pt
Inside the usual 10.5 to 12 pt range for Calibri.
Margins 0.75 in
Inside the usual 0.75 to 1 in range.
Line spacing 1.15
Inside the usual 1.0 to 1.15 range, or comfortably airy.
1 page, 100% full
Fits on one page.

The settings most resumes use

Setting	Usual range	Why
Body text	10 to 12 pt	Readable in print and on a phone; smaller reads as cramming.
Your name	18 to 24 pt	The first thing a recruiter should find.
Section headings	11 to 14 pt, bold or capitalised	Makes the page scannable without decoration.
Margins	0.5 to 1 in (0.75 to 1 in typical)	Under 0.5 in can clip in print.
Line spacing	1.0 to 1.15	Dense enough to fit a page, open enough to read.
Fonts per document	One or two	A second face only for headings, if at all.

These are conventions, not rules, and they are the same ones the preview checks against. They exist because a recruiter skims a resume in seconds: anything that makes the page harder to read costs you more than it saves in space.

How to fit more without shrinking the type

Cut words first. One fewer line in each of ten bullets is ten lines back.
Narrow the margins toward 0.75 inch: it gives every line more width, so fewer wrap onto a second line.
Reduce the gap between jobs and sections a little before touching the type size.
Try a more compact face: Calibri fits more words per line than Georgia at the same size.
Only then drop the body size, and not below 10 pt.

To see how many words you have, use the resume length checker.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best font for a resume?: A clean, widely installed font at a readable size. Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman and Garamond all work, and all five are on this page. Sans-serif fonts (Arial, Calibri) look modern and read well on screen; serif fonts (Georgia, Times New Roman, Garamond) look traditional and suit law, academia and finance. Pick one, and use it for the whole document.
What font size should a resume be?: Body text at 10 to 12 pt. Many faces look right at 11 pt; Arial and Georgia run wide and are comfortable at 10 to 10.5, while Times New Roman and Garamond run small and want 11.5 to 12. Your name can be 18 to 24 pt and section headings 11 to 14 pt. Below 10 pt is hard to read; above 12 pt for body text wastes space.
What margins should a resume have?: Between 0.5 and 1 inch, with 0.75 to 1 inch the most common. Anything under 0.5 inch can be clipped by a printer and looks crowded. If you are a few lines over a page, trim words before you shrink the margins below 0.7 inch.
What line spacing should a resume use?: Between 1.0 and 1.15 for body text, with a little extra space above each section heading and between jobs. Tighter than 1.0 makes lines touch; much looser than 1.3 pushes content onto another page.
Does the font affect an ATS?: Only if the font breaks the text. An applicant tracking system reads the text in your file, not how it looks, so any real font is fine. What does cause trouble is text inside images, decorative symbol fonts for bullets or icons, and unusual fonts that a PDF export replaces. Stay with the standard faces and export a text PDF.
Does this tool store my resume?: No. If you paste your text it stays in your browser and is never uploaded.

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