Font choice impacts both algorithmic readability and human user experience. Choosing non-standard custom fonts can lead to character encoding issues, rendering your resume as garbled symbols inside the parser database.
1. Standard System-Safe Fonts
Stick to universal serif and sans-serif fonts supported natively across Windows, macOS, Linux, and web parsers:
- Sans-Serif (Modern & Clean): Arial, Helvetica, Calibri, Trebuchet MS, Tahoma.
- Serif (Classic & Executive): Times New Roman, Georgia, Garamond, Cambria.
2. Ideal Typography Scales
Maintain consistent sizing across your document hierarchy to preserve visual structure:
- Name / Title: 20px – 24px (Bold)
- Section Headers (H2): 14px – 16px (Bold)
- Body Text & Bullets: 10.5px – 11.5px (Regular)
3. Font Selection Pitfalls
Avoid decorative, script, or custom downloaded web fonts that require external CSS files to render properly. If a parser lacks the font file, it defaults to fallback text that can mess up line breaks and alignment.