The best font size for resume body text is 10 to 12 points, with your name set slightly larger at 12 to 14 points and section headings sized somewhere in between. Within that range, the right choice depends on which font you’re using, how much experience you need to fit on the page, and whether the resume will be read on screen or printed.
Body Text: 10 to 12 Points
Most of your resume is body text: bullet points describing your experience, your education details, and your skills. Stick to 10, 11, or 12 point size for all of it. This range is large enough for a recruiter to scan quickly and small enough to fit meaningful content on one page.
Where you land within that range should depend on your font choice. Fonts like Arial and Verdana have larger letter shapes at the same point size compared to fonts like Times New Roman or Garamond. If you’re using Arial at 12 points, your resume may look oversized and sparse. Drop it to 10.5 or 11 and it reads comfortably while giving you more room. Times New Roman at 10 points, on the other hand, can feel cramped, so 11 or 12 works better for serif fonts with smaller letter shapes.
The simplest test: print your resume or view it at 100% zoom on screen. If you find yourself squinting at any line, bump the size up. If the page looks like it has too much white space and you’re struggling to fill it, you’ve gone too large.
Your Name and Section Headings
Your name at the top of the resume should be the most prominent text on the page. Set it at 12 to 14 points, or roughly 2 to 4 points larger than your body text. This creates a clear visual anchor without making the header look like a billboard.
Section headings like “Experience,” “Education,” and “Skills” should fall between your name size and your body text size. If your body is at 11 points, headings at 12 or 13 points with bold formatting create enough contrast to guide the reader’s eye. You don’t need a dramatic size jump. Even one point of difference plus bold weight is enough to signal a new section.
How Font Choice Changes the Math
Not all 11-point text looks the same. The font you pick has a big impact on how large or small your resume feels, so your size decision and your font decision really go together.
- Arial is a sans-serif font with wide, open letterforms. It reads clearly at smaller sizes, making 10 or 10.5 points perfectly legible. At 12 points it can eat through your available space quickly.
- Calibri, the default in Microsoft Word, was designed for on-screen readability. It sits between Arial and Times New Roman in terms of visual size, and 11 points is a natural sweet spot.
- Times New Roman has narrower letters with fine serifs. It packs more characters per line, which means 11 or 12 points usually reads better than 10.
- Garamond runs noticeably smaller than other fonts at the same point size. If you like its classic look, lean toward 12 points for body text.
- Arial Narrow is a condensed version of Arial that fits more text per line without sacrificing sharpness. It’s useful when you’re tight on space but still want a clean sans-serif look, and it holds up well even at 10 points.
The takeaway: pick your font first, then adjust the size so the text feels balanced on the page. A resume in Garamond at 10 points and a resume in Arial at 12 points can both look wrong for opposite reasons.
Fitting Content Without Going Too Small
The most common reason people shrink their font below 10 points is to squeeze everything onto one page. Resist the urge. Dropping to 9 or 9.5 points makes text genuinely hard to read, especially for anyone reviewing resumes on a phone or tablet. It also signals to the reader that you couldn’t prioritize your own experience.
If your resume is overflowing, try these adjustments before touching the font size. Tighten your margins to 0.5 inches on each side (don’t go narrower than that). Cut bullet points that describe duties rather than accomplishments. Remove outdated roles that aren’t relevant to the job you’re targeting. Switch to a slightly more compact font like Calibri or Arial Narrow instead of a wider one. These changes can free up surprising amounts of space without sacrificing readability.
Keeping Your Resume ATS-Friendly
Most large employers use applicant tracking systems to parse resumes before a human ever sees them. Font size itself rarely causes parsing errors, but the formatting choices you make alongside it can. Stick with standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, Georgia, Cambria, Garamond) and avoid decorative or script typefaces that an ATS might not recognize.
Use standard sizes of 10, 11, or 12 for body text and larger sizes for headings. Avoid using italics and underlines for emphasis, since some systems misread those styles. Bold is generally fine. Keep your formatting simple: if your resume looks clean in a plain text preview, it will almost certainly parse correctly through an ATS.
Quick Reference by Resume Element
- Your name: 12 to 14 points
- Section headings: 11 to 13 points, bold
- Body text and bullet points: 10 to 12 points
- Contact information: Same as body text or one point smaller
Use one font throughout the resume, or at most two (one for headings, one for body text). Consistency matters more than creativity here. A recruiter spends seconds on an initial scan, and clean, uniform formatting makes that scan easier.