Best Font for a CV: Font Size, ATS-Safe Fonts and What to Avoid

Nobody hires you because of a font, but a poor font choice can make a strong CV harder to read, and some fonts cause problems when the CV is parsed by software.

Fonts that work

• Sans-serif: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Inter, Noto Sans, Lato. Clean and readable on screen.
• Serif: Georgia, Cambria, Garamond, Noto Serif. Classic, good for law, finance and academia.

Font size

• Body text: 10 to 12 pt (10.5 to 11 is a good default).
• Section headings: 12 to 14 pt.
• Your name: 16 to 22 pt.
• Never go below 9 pt to fit everything on one page; cut content instead.

Fonts to avoid

• Decorative or script fonts.
• Comic Sans and novelty fonts.
• Fonts that are not embedded in the PDF: on another computer they may be replaced and break the layout.
• More than two font families on one page.

Fonts and ATS

Applicant tracking systems read the text layer of your PDF, not the visual shape of letters. Problems come from PDFs where text is converted to images or outlines, or where fonts are subset in a way that breaks characters. Export from a tool that keeps real, selectable text, then copy and paste the text from the PDF to check.

Arabic, Chinese and Japanese CVs

For Arabic, use a clear Naskh or modern sans font such as Noto Naskh Arabic or Noto Sans Arabic. For Chinese and Japanese, standard system fonts (such as Microsoft YaHei, PingFang, Meiryo or Yu Gothic) are safest because the recruiter's computer will have them.

One or two readable fonts, 10 to 12 pt, embedded in a real text PDF. That is all you need.

Templates that take care of it

The CV Analyz templates use self-hosted, embedded fonts for Latin and Arabic text, so the PDF looks the same as on screen and keeps a real text layer that ATS software can read.