Fonts and typography – Page 3

Use them consistently. A common approach is:

• A hyphen (-) for joined words such as "full-time" or "cross-functional".
• An en dash (–) for ranges, such as "2019–2023", or simply write "2019 to 2023".
• An em dash (—) rarely, if at all; a comma or colon is usually clearer.

The most important rule is to use one style for date ranges throughout. Mixing "2019 - 2023" and "2019–2023" looks careless.

If you are unsure whether special dashes will display properly in every system, writing "to" between dates is the simplest, safest choice.

It is best not to. Emoji look informal, can appear differently or as empty boxes on other devices, and may be turned into odd symbols when an applicant tracking system reads the file.

Even in relaxed industries such as social media or start-ups, a resume is a formal document, and emoji can distract from your achievements. If you want to show personality or social media skills, do it through results and examples.

Example: "Grew Instagram followers from 3,000 to 18,000 in a year through weekly short-form video and creator collaborations."

Keep emoji for your portfolio, social profiles or content samples if relevant.

Comfortable line lengths are roughly 60 to 100 characters, which is what a standard single-column resume with normal margins and a 10 to 12 point font usually produces. Much longer lines are tiring to follow, and very short lines make the text choppy.

You control line length through:

• Margins: very narrow margins create very long lines.
• Font size: smaller text fits more characters per line.
• Columns: sidebars make the main column narrower.

Rather than measuring, look at a paragraph. If your eyes struggle to find the start of the next line, the lines are too long. If bullets wrap after just a few words, the column is too narrow.

Small caps, which are capital letters at roughly lower-case height, can look elegant for section headings or your name. They are fine if your font has a true small caps style and you use them consistently.

Points to remember:

• Use them only for short items such as headings, not for body text.
• Some programs fake small caps by shrinking capitals, which can look thin.
• Applicant tracking systems read the underlying letters, so small caps do not affect the text itself.

If small caps look awkward in your font, regular capitals or bold title case are simpler alternatives.

Keep contact details and dates at body size or slightly smaller, such as 9.5 to 11 points, but never so small they are hard to read. These details are essential, even if they are visually secondary.

Tips:

• Phone numbers and email addresses must be easy to read and copy, so avoid tiny text.
• Dates should line up consistently down the page.
• Locations can share the same size as dates.

A common mistake is to shrink dates and contact information to save space. If someone cannot read your phone number on a phone screen, they will not call you. Find space elsewhere by trimming content.

Yes, ideally. Embedding means the font is stored inside the PDF, so it looks the same on every device, even if the reader does not have that font installed. Without embedding, the viewer may substitute another font and your spacing or page breaks can change.

Most modern PDF exports embed fonts by default. To check:

• In a PDF viewer, open the document properties and look at the Fonts list; embedded fonts are usually marked "Embedded" or "Embedded Subset".
• Open the PDF on another device and compare.

If you use a resume builder, the PDF is usually generated with the fonts it needs. Always open your final file before sending it.

You can, if it is a reputable, readable font with a licence that allows personal use, and it is embedded in your PDF. Many free fonts from established sources, such as Google Fonts, are fine.

Risks with downloaded fonts:

• Some are poorly made and display or print oddly.
• Some lack characters such as accented letters, Arabic or Indian scripts.
• If you send a Word file, the reader will not have the font and it may be replaced.

Test the font with your name, every special character and your full resume before you commit. If anything looks wrong, a standard font is the safer option.

Clear sans serif fonts with distinct letter shapes and generous spacing are generally considered easier to read. Examples include Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, Calibri, Open Sans and Lexend.

Typography choices help as much as the font:

• Body text at 11 to 12 points.
• Left-aligned text, not justified.
• Line spacing of about 1.15 or more.
• Short bullets instead of dense paragraphs.
• Strong contrast: black text on white.
• No long passages in capitals or italics.

These choices make your resume more accessible to everyone, including busy readers on phones, and they do not affect how software reads your file.

Yes, it can. Fonts differ in width and height, so the same text at the same point size can take noticeably more or less space. Switching from Garamond to Verdana, for example, can push a one-page resume onto two pages.

When you change fonts:

• Recheck the page count and where each page breaks.
• Look for single words left alone on a line.
• Adjust the size so body text remains comfortable to read.

Do not pick a narrow font only to squeeze content onto one page. If you are just over a page, it is usually better to tighten wording or remove a weak bullet than to shrink the font.

Either is fine, but be consistent. Curly (typographic) quotes look more polished, while straight quotes are what many keyboards produce. Mixing both in the same resume looks careless.

Common places this shows up:

• Apostrophes in "Bachelor's degree" or "Master's".
• Quotation marks around a project or award name.

Text pasted from emails, websites or other documents often brings different quote styles, so check after pasting. Most PDFs display both types correctly. If any appear as odd symbols or boxes after export, replace them with straight versions.

Professional typography depends far more on how you use fonts than on which font you choose. With a basic font like Arial or Times New Roman, you can still make a polished resume by:

• Setting body text at 10.5 to 11.5 points.
• Making your name noticeably larger and bold.
• Using bold capitals for section headings.
• Bolding job titles consistently.
• Aligning dates to the right.
• Leaving even space between jobs and larger space before sections.
• Keeping bullets short, with consistent punctuation.

These choices create order and calm on the page. Readers notice when a resume is easy to scan, not whether the font was unusual.

Use a sturdy, readable font at a slightly comfortable size, with dark text that prints clearly on any printer. Job fair resumes are read quickly, often standing up, by people looking at many documents.

Typography tips for print:

• Body text at 11 points or more.
• Regular or medium weight; avoid thin fonts.
• Strong bold headings.
• Black text, with any accent colour dark enough to print well in greyscale.
• Plenty of spacing so the reader can scan in a moment.

Print a test copy before making several. Check that small text such as dates and email addresses is crisp and that nothing is cut off at the edges.

It is not necessary and rarely noticed. Employers assess your experience and fit for the role, not whether your font matches their brand. Some brand fonts are also not freely available or are designed for headlines, not small body text.

Better ways to show you fit the company:

• Use the job title and key terms from the advert where they truthfully describe your experience.
• Put your most relevant achievements first.
• Write a cover letter that refers to the company's work.

Keep one clean, professional font for every application, and spend your time tailoring the content instead.

Blurry text usually means the text was turned into an image instead of staying as real text. This happens when a resume is scanned, exported from a design tool as a flattened image, saved as a screenshot, or "printed" to PDF through some image-based route.

Image-based text causes two problems: it looks poor when zoomed or printed, and applicant tracking systems may not be able to read it at all.

How to check and fix:

• Try selecting a word in the PDF. If you cannot, it is an image.
• Re-export from the original document as a text-based PDF.
• Do not use screenshots or scans as your application file.

ResumeBuilder.ae generates a text-based PDF where the text can be selected and copied.

Bold whichever matters more for your target role, and do it consistently. Most people bold the job title, because it tells the reader what you did, and readers often scan titles first.

Bold the company name instead if:

• Your employers are well known and add credibility.
• Your job titles are unusual or internal and do not explain much.

Example with title in bold:
Procurement Officer (bold)
Al Noor Trading LLC, Muscat

Do not bold both, as it removes the contrast that makes either stand out. Whatever you choose, apply the same pattern to every job, internship and volunteer role.

Write the full term the first time if readers might not know it, followed by the acronym in brackets, then use the acronym afterwards. Well-known terms such as CEO, HR or MBA can be used on their own.

Example: "Implemented key performance indicators (KPIs) for the customer service team."

Typography tips:

• Do not use full stops inside acronyms: "MBA", not "M.B.A.".
• Keep capitalisation consistent, such as "SQL" every time.
• Include both forms for important qualifications, as some systems search one and some the other.

Example: "Project Management Professional (PMP)"

This helps both human readers and keyword searches find the term.

Any clean, widely available font works for a UK CV. Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana, Georgia and Cambria are all common and professional. UK employers generally expect a tidy, text-focused document rather than a heavily designed one.

Practical tips:

• Body text at 10 to 12 points.
• Clear bold headings.
• A4 page size.
• Black text, with any accent colour used sparingly.

Most UK applications are read on screen first, so readability on a laptop or phone matters as much as print. Keep it simple and let your achievements and skills do the work.

Any clean, widely available font works well for Gulf applications, such as Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Lato, Open Sans, Georgia or Cambria. Employers in the region read CVs from many countries, so a neutral, readable font is the best choice.

Practical tips:

• Body text at 10 to 12 points on A4.
• Bold, clear section headings.
• If you include your name or other details in Arabic, choose a font that displays Arabic properly and test the PDF.

CVs in the Gulf are often forwarded between recruiters, HR and managers and read on phones, so a simple, consistent font that displays well everywhere is more important than a distinctive style.

Sturdy fonts with even strokes and open letter shapes print most clearly, such as Arial, Calibri, Verdana, Georgia, Cambria and Times New Roman. They hold up well on ordinary office printers and in black and white.

Fonts that print less well:

• Light or thin weights, which can look faint or broken.
• Fonts with very fine strokes, such as some elegant display serifs, at small sizes.
• Condensed fonts, where letters may blur together.

Before printing several copies, print one test page and check that dates, email addresses and small details are crisp. If anything looks faint, increase the size or switch to a regular weight.

A little extra letter spacing (often called tracking) can make headings in capitals look more polished, but it is optional. Capital letters set close together can look cramped, and slightly wider spacing helps them read more evenly.

Guidelines:

• Apply it only to short headings or your name, never to body text.
• Keep it subtle; very wide spacing looks like separate letters.
• Use the same spacing on every heading.

Applicant tracking systems read the underlying text, so properly applied letter spacing does not change the words. Do not create spacing by typing spaces between letters, as that can turn "EXPERIENCE" into "E X P E R I E N C E", which software may not recognise as the heading.