The styles, fonts, and sizes of your text will portray you in a specific way, so it is imperative that you are aware of these guidelines.
Choosing fonts for a resume seems to be a simple task, but there are several scenarios in which you may find yourself in a bit of trouble with the selection and formatting of the text.
-
Sparse Information: Maybe your resume isn't filled to the brim with details, which is not the end of the world. There are tricks that you can use to make your document more bountiful.
To fix a resume that is lacking information use wider fonts such as Verdana, Tahoma or Georgia. They are more widely spaced and are not too bold or difficult to read. You may increase the size by no more than a few points or pixels from our default 12-pixel size. What you should not do, is use a huge font that looks silly, it would appear unsightly if you bumped up the size to be ridiculously large. -
Abundant Information: On the opposite end of the spectrum you wrote about so many things that it appears crowded when you try to squeeze everything on the page.
You can condense your information by using a more compact font like Arial or Times New Roman and again, you can adjust to a smaller size by one or two points or one or two pixels.
These tricks often help the situation, but beware the best way to solve this problem is to actually go through your writing and edit it, stripping out unnecessary, extra text.
Include your most important and relevant experiences, education and skills to deliver the most impact. Use keywords and action verbs to add to that impact. - Unconventional Fonts: This situation can be easily avoided by simply staying away from fancy and non-standard fonts, meaning ones that are not traditionally used. We listed names of common types earlier in this article. When in doubt, just don't use it.
- Blank Space: Although the most important aspect of your resume is the text, don't forget that the blank spaces on the page are just as vital. Don't ignore the need for blank space! An average recruiter doesn't spend a generous amount of time surveying your resume. It would help if you made it easy to read with everything evenly spaced out.
General Guidelines
Now that you know the most common resume font mistakes, you can avoid them, but you are still required to know the proper formatting procedures for resume fonts. Luckily for you our Free Resume Creator will automatically include all these guidelines. However, it is still good to know how you are supposed to do it.
- The size should be 10-12pt or 12-14px depending upon which unit of measurement you choose.
- Use common types like Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, or Verdana.
- Make the headers bold or italic, but remain consistent throughout the entire document.
- Use bolding, capitalization, and underlining sparingly.
- Again, consistency is key, only use one type of font and keep the size the same for each individual element (e.g. headings, descriptions, and body) on all of your documents, including your cover letter and reference page.
Use proper formatting to make your qualifications stand out and better compete with other applicants. If you are still unsure of how to correctly format the fonts use our resume samples as a guide. Moreover, you can turn to our free no cost creator to be sure that all fonts and formatting adhere to the correct standards.
