10 Worst Fonts to Use on Your Resume (And What You Should Pick Instead)

Written by UPrinting - Updated on June 10, 2025

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Last updated on June 10th, 2025 at 09:44 pm

On average, recruiters spend six to eight seconds looking at applicants’
resumes before determining their suitability for the position. And the
content of your resume isn’t the only thing they look at — your font
choice can also help make an impression, whether good or bad.

The right font can enhance your resume’s readability and create a good
first impression. On the flip side, the wrong one can make your CV look
unprofessional and difficult to read, derailing your chances for an
interview.

Even though you find your favorite font creative or eye-catching, it
doesn’t necessarily mean it will look good on your resume. So, before you
even think about using it, check out our list of worst fonts for a CV and
why they don’t work in the professional world.

We also share a list of resume-friendly fonts that exude professionalism,
confidence, and trustworthiness.

10 Fonts to Avoid on Your Resume

Choosing the wrong font can make or break your job application.

1. Comic Sans MS

Comic Sans is a sans-serif font, meaning it
does not have “feet” or extending features at the end of
strokes. This typeface was originally designed for cartoon
quote bubbles and other informal communications. Today, it’s
often used in memes and other casual scenarios.

Why it’s a poor choice: Comic Sans
looks too casual and relaxed, making it better suited
for informal communications. It also becomes difficult
to read in smaller text sizes, making it ineffective for
CVs and other printed materials.

2. Papyrus

Papyrus is a calligraphic font with several
distinct characteristics, including high horizontal strokes,
irregular curves, and rough edges. As the name suggests, it
resembles the look of ancient Egyptian writing on papyrus
paper.

Why it’s a poor choice: The font lacks
sophistication and becomes unreadable when used in
blocks or strings of small text.

3. Courier

Courier was designed as a typewriter face for
IBM, featuring a monotone weight and equal spacing between
letters. This makes it resemble tabular work, technical
documentation, or source code.

Why it’s a poor choice: The typewriter
effect looks outdated and dull. Moreover, it becomes
difficult to read if presented in all caps.

4. Impact

Impact has a noticeably high x-height, which
refers to the height of lowercase letters like “x,” “v,” “w,”
and “z.” Other distinct features include compressed letter
spacing, thick strokes, short ascenders and descenders, and
minimal interior counter-form.

Why it’s a poor choice: The font has
too much impact—so much so that it seems to be
“shouting” at the reader. Its loudness and boldness make
it unsuitable for professional communications.

5. Brush Script

Brush Script features energetic strokes that
resemble handwriting with a thick brush effect, adding a
playful and artistic vibe. Consequently, it’s a popular choice
among artists who need a font to emphasize the creative touch
in their designs.

Why it’s a poor choice: The rough
cursive appearance looks too laid-back and elaborate for
formal communications. Additionally, the font becomes
hard to read at smaller sizes, especially in long blocks
of text.

6. Times New Roman

Times New Roman was originally designed for
newspaper printing, featuring narrow characters and tight
spacing to allow publishers to fit more text per line. Notable
characteristics include prominent diagonal stress, tall
numerals, thin and sharp serifs, and a high x-height.

Why it’s a poor choice: It’s considered
typographically outdated and boring. Some readers also
find the font “too tight,” making it difficult to read
on screens.

7. Curlz MT

Curlz MT is characterized by wavy strokes and
swirls at the beginning and end of letters, giving it a bent,
twisted-metal appearance. Nowadays, designers use it for
playful and carefree titles.

Why it’s a poor choice: The font
becomes unreadable when used in body copy or long blocks
of text. It also delivers a very laid-back, playful
vibe, making it only suitable for T-shirts, posters,
flyers, party invitations, and other novelty products.

8. Jokerman

Jokerman is a heavily decorated typeface
featuring spirals, spikes, dots, and straight lines integrated
into the characters. Although the “embellishments” seem
random, the letterforms have distinct characteristics: low
x-height, swaying stems, and bulging curves.

Without the ornamentation, Jokerman resembles Comic Sans’
taller and curvier sibling.

Why it’s a poor choice: Jokerman is
almost unreadable due to the excessive use of ornaments
on the characters, making it impractical for
professional use.

9. Chiller

Chiller is deemed the ultimate “scary” font,
making it a staple in horror film posters, Halloween
invitations, and gory video games. It has a distressed,
handwritten style with uneven and rough textures, irregular
strokes, and an overall chaotic appearance.

Why it’s a poor choice: The font is
only suitable for designs that require a creepy and
unsettling aesthetic—definitely not something you want
on your resume or in any formal communication.

10. Lucida Handwriting

Lucida Handwriting is a typeface designed to
resemble informal cursive handwriting created with felt- or
plastic-tipped pens or markers. It features a large x-height,
widely spaced letters, and relatively narrow, short uppercase
characters.

The font has a relaxed and vigorous form, making it pleasant
for casual reading on screens and in print.

Why it’s a poor choice: The lively
cursive style appears too friendly and warm for
professional communications. It also requires more line
spacing to accommodate the ascenders and descenders.
Without sufficient space, the typeface becomes difficult
to read.

Now that you know which fonts to avoid, it’s time to explore the ones
that look good on your resume. You may notice that the typefaces listed
here look quite different from one another, but they share certain
similarities: They all look clean, professional, and easy on the eye.

The fonts are also easily scanned and interpreted by an Applicant
Tracking System or ATS, which is a software application that helps HR
departments manage recruitment and hiring tasks digitally.

ATS-friendly fonts are almost a necessity in today’s labor market. Up to
90% of employers, including most Fortune 500 companies, use software
apps to manage candidate applications.

6 Best Fonts to Use on Your Resume

Choosing the right font makes your resume stand out for the right
reasons!

1. Calibri

Calibri is a contemporary sans-serif typeface
known for its clean letterforms and lack of bunting, making it
one of the best fonts for screens. After dethroning Times New
Roman, it was the default typeface in programs like
PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook for 17 years.

Calibri is also suitable for various text-based documents,
such as resumes, cover letters, and business proposals. In
terms of readability, it closely resembles Arial.

Why it’s a good choice: The font is
versatile and looks good on screens and text-based
documents.

2. Arial

As a contemporary sans-serif font,
Arial offers excellent legibility and
readability but contains more humanist characteristics than
many of its industrial-style predecessors.

Arial closely resembles Helvetica but with fuller and softer
curves and more open counters. Furthermore, the strokes on its
letters (such as “c,” “g,” and “s”) have a more natural angle
in relation to the stroke direction, whereas in Helvetica they
look as if they were cut off abruptly.

Why it’s a good choice: Arial’s
letterforms are simple, clean, and versatile due to its
range of weights and styles. It also offers excellent
readability even in small sizes and text-heavy
documents.

3. Garamond

Garamond has letterforms with a somewhat
organic structure resembling handwriting with a pen but
slightly more upright. A Parisian engraver named Claude
Garamond created this old-style serif typeface in the 16th
century.

The typeface has capital letters modeled on Roman square
capitals, clear stroke contrast, and distinct letterforms
found in “e” (it has a small eye) and “a” (it has a sharp turn
at the top left).

Why it’s a good choice: It is one of
the most readable and legible fonts in print that offers
a sophisticated and elegant look.

4. Georgia

The typeface has strokes that alternate between thick and
thick, creating a slightly italic effect without being too
slanted. Its letters also “blend” with one another without
being connected. Despite this, they are easy to read even at
small sizes and low resolutions.

Georgia is somewhat similar to Times New
Roman but with taller, bolder, and darker letterforms.

Why it’s a good choice: Georgia is an
excellent font in creative fields and for professionals
who want to add a bit of personality to their resumes,
as it combines old-world charm and modern forms.

5. Helvetica

The font has a tight spacing between letters, high x-height,
and strokes that terminate on horizontal or vertical lines. It
also has monotone stroke weights and narrow “t” and “f,”
giving the letters a dense, solid appearance.

Helvetica is considered the twin of the Arial
font, with the former having less spacing between characters
and its letterforms having more angled strokes.

Why it’s a good choice: Helvetica is a
neutral font that can be used in a wide range of designs
and text-heavy documents. It also exudes a polished,
minimalist vibe.

6. Verdana

The typeface exhibits characteristics derived from the pixel
rather than the brush, chisel, or pen. Additionally, commonly
confused characters such as “i” and “j,” the numeral 1, and
the uppercase “J” and “L” were carefully designed to ensure
that the pixel patterns are legible even at small sizes.

Although Verdana was originally designed to
be readable at small sizes on low-resolution computer screens
of the 90s, its letterforms also look great in prints because
of the generous spacing between letters and their fairly bold
and broad form.

Why it’s a good choice: This sans-serif
font has more space between each letter, making it
easier to read from a distance. The generous spacing
also minimizes eye fatigue and strain.

General Guidelines for Choosing Resume Fonts

These are some additional tips to ensure that your choice of font
accurately conveys your professional background and gives your resume
excellent readability and legibility.

Consistency

1

Ensure your resume is consistent in terms of formatting, bullet
points, and section headings. Also, stick to one or two fonts
throughout your CV. This way, the typography hierarchy and
details look professional and organized.

1

A good rule of thumb is to choose a font size of 10–12 pt. for
the body text and slightly bigger for section titles and
headers, about 14–16 pt. This range of sizes will allow
recruiters to read your resume easily.

2

Once you decide on a font size, it should be consistent
throughout your resume to make the typography hierarchy easy to
understand.

Readability and Legibility

1

Our list of recommended fonts does not include cursive,
intricate, or bubbly typefaces, which typically offer poor
readability and legibility, especially in all caps.

2

Correct line spacing is also important to promote excellent
readability. The general recommendation is to use 1.0 or 1.15
lines between text and double lines after subheaders.

3

Using bullet points is another way to improve the readability of
your resume by making it easy to skim through. However, don’t
overuse them — limit them to up to six points for each section.

Simplicity in Style

1

Avoid using cursive fonts and too many bold, italicized, or
underlined sections. The goal is to aim for a clean appearance
and excellent readability.

2

A minimalist resume format looks clean and helps you avoid
common pitfalls, including typos, clutter, irrelevant
information, and inconsistencies.

3

Note that simplicity does not mean boring. In fact, some
situations allow the use of
infographic resumes.

Your resume should exude confidence, clarity, and professionalism.
Consequently, cursive fonts and those with overly intricate designs are
not great options for this formal document. Use fonts that offer
excellent readability, look professional, and lean toward simplicity.

Now that you know how to create a resume that can help you grab the
attention of recruiters, why not supplement it with custom business
cards? This way, you can help employers and hiring managers remember
your details and access your contact information conveniently.

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