What Is the Best Font for a Resume?

Your resume font is one of the first things a hiring manager notices, often before they read a single word. The right font signals professionalism and makes your experience easy to scan. The wrong one can make a strong resume look sloppy or dated. Here’s what actually works.

Best serif fonts for a resume

Serif fonts carry a traditional, established feel that works well for corporate, legal, academic, and finance roles. They read as formal and trustworthy in print and on screen.

Best sans-serif fonts for a resume

Sans-serif fonts read as clean and modern, and are a safe, versatile choice for almost any industry, especially tech, design, marketing, and startups. They also tend to render more crisply at small sizes on screen, which matters if your resume is being reviewed on a laptop.

What size font should you use for a resume?

Font size matters just as much as font choice, since resumes need to fit a lot of information on one or two pages without feeling cramped or straining the reader’s eyes.

• Your name – 20-24pt, bold weight, the only element that should stand out significantly
• Section headers – 12-14pt, bold or semibold, used consistently throughout
• Body text – 10-11pt for job titles, descriptions, and bullet points, never smaller than 10pt
• Contact info and dates – 9-10pt, can be slightly smaller since it’s secondary information

Stick to one font for headers and one for body text, at most two total. Use bold and size changes to create hierarchy rather than switching fonts.

Fonts to avoid on a resume

Some fonts are safe defaults but actively work against you. Avoid decorative, script, or novelty fonts entirely, they’re hard to scan quickly and read as unprofessional. Avoid anything overly thin or condensed at small sizes, since it can be difficult to read when printed or viewed on a lower-resolution screen. And be cautious with fonts that are extremely common defaults, like Times New Roman or Arial, since they can make a resume feel generic when a well-chosen alternative takes no extra effort.

Matching font choice to your industry

A serif font like Lora or PT Serif signals a more conservative, established tone that fits naturally with law, finance, government, and academic applications, where hiring managers often expect a traditional presentation. A sans-serif like Inter or Work Sans reads as more contemporary and is generally the safer default for tech, startups, design, and marketing roles, industries where a slightly more modern visual sensibility is often viewed favorably rather than as a risk.

Frequently asked questions

Does font choice actually affect whether I get called back for an interview? Font choice alone won’t overcome weak content, but a clean, well-chosen font does make a resume easier and faster to scan, which matters given that many recruiters spend only a few seconds on an initial pass, so an easy-to-read resume gets a genuine fair chance to have its content actually register.

Is it okay to use different fonts for my resume and cover letter? It’s generally better to use the same font family across both documents for a cohesive, professional presentation, since a hiring manager reviewing both together will notice the inconsistency if the fonts don’t match.

Whichever font you choose, staying consistent across your resume, cover letter, and any portfolio materials creates a small but noticeable impression of attention to detail, exactly the quality most job descriptions claim to value.

Browse more

Explore the full serif and sans-serif collections to find more options, or read our guide on how to pair fonts like a pro if you’re designing a matching cover letter.