Resume Design Tips II: Using fonts

Your resume is one of the most important professional documents you will ever produce. Your resume needs to state that you are reliable, professional, honest and so on. How do you do that? Using type properly is a big, big step.

Choosing fonts

You'll probably want to stick to one font for your resume; if you're feeling creative (and this is a relative term when it comes to resumes), you can use two, but no more than two. Ever.

There are two kinds of fonts you can use: "serif" or "sans-serif". Serifs are the little lines at the ends of letters, like the little line at the top of the "h":

h

Good serif fonts to use that you will be able to find on your computer: Times (or Times New Roman), Georgia, Minion, Palatino or Bell.

Sans-serif fonts do not have the little lines ("without serifs"). Use sans-serif fonts like Arial, Myriad, Tahoma or Verdana.

Most other fonts are not professional enough to use on your resume.

Font size

The default size for a font is 12 points (12pt - a point is 1/72 of an inch). This is an acceptable size, although most graphic designers would choose 10pt for a starting size. This depends on the font, and you want the resume to be readable - going too small is worse then too big, but don't go out of the 10pt - 12pt range.

Mixing fonts

If you are feeling adventurous, you can use a serif font and a sans-serif font (don't mix 2 serif fonts or 2 sans-serif fonts). Use the serif font for the main resume text, and the sans-serif font for the section titles (like "Objectives", "Employment History" and "References").

You probably have dozens of fonts on your computer, but most are inappropriate for a professional document like a resume. Stick to a conservative presentation; this will prevent your resume from being discarded or discredited immediately.

If you want something a little more interesting, have your resume designed by a professional graphic designer (the investment should be worth it), or take your resume to a career adviser for a second opinion.