You've spent four hours agonizing over whether "spearheaded" sounds better than "managed." Your margins are set. Your contact info is updated. But then you look at the page and realize it looks... off. Maybe it’s too cramped. Maybe it looks like a children's book. This is where most people get stuck on the font size for resume layouts without even realizing it’s a make-or-break decision for the hiring manager’s tired eyes.
If you go too small, the recruiter—who is probably looking at their twelfth PDF of the hour—is going to squint, get a headache, and move on. Go too big? You look like you’re trying to hide a lack of experience with "jumbo" letters. It’s a psychological tightrope.
Honestly, there isn't a single "legal" font size. But there are rules of thumb that people who actually get hired follow.
The Sweet Spot for Body Text
For the bulk of your resume—your bullet points, your professional summary, and your education details—the standard font size for resume body text is almost always 10 to 12 points.
Why this range? It’s basically the goldilocks zone of legibility. A 10-point Calibri font is readable but allows you to cram in that extra certification. A 12-point Garamond feels classic and airy. If you drop below 10, you’re entering "fine print" territory. Unless you’re applying for a role that requires a magnifying glass, don't do it. Most Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) can read smaller fonts, but the human on the other side? They won't.
I've seen resumes where people try to hit the "one-page rule" by dropping to 8.5-point font. It’s a mess. It looks like a wall of grey bricks. If you can't fit your experience at 10 points, you don't need a smaller font; you need an editor.
It depends on the typeface
Here is the thing: a 10-point font in one family isn't the same as a 10-point font in another. Typography is weird like that.
Take Arial and Times New Roman. Arial is a "large" font. Its x-height—the height of the lowercase letters—is relatively tall. A 10-point Arial looks substantial. Now, look at Times New Roman or Caslon. These are narrower. A 10-point Times New Roman can look tiny and spindly. If you’re using a serif font (the ones with the little feet), you might actually need to bump it up to 11 or 11.5 to keep it from looking cluttered.
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Scaling Your Headers Without Looking Ridiculous
Your name should be the biggest thing on the page. Period.
You want the recruiter to remember who you are. For your name at the very top, aim for 18 to 24 points. It needs to pop. It’s your brand.
For section headers—things like "Professional Experience," "Skills," and "Education"—you want something that creates a clear visual hierarchy. Usually, 14 to 16 points works best. You want the reader’s eye to be able to "scan" the document. If they can find the "Skills" section in half a second, you've won.
Imagine a recruiter has six seconds. They aren't reading; they're skimming. High-contrast font sizes act like signposts. Without them, your resume is just a flat map with no landmarks.
The "Sub-Header" Dilemma
Sometimes you have job titles or company names that need to stand out but aren't quite "Section Headers."
For these, I usually recommend staying close to the body text size but using bolding instead of a massive size increase. If your body is 10, maybe make your job titles 11 or 12. It’s a subtle nudge to the eye. It says, "Hey, look here, this is a new job," without shouting it.
Why the "One-Page Rule" Is Ruining Your Font Choices
We’ve all been told a resume must be one page. This is a lie, mostly.
If you have fifteen years of experience at Google and Meta, nobody expects you to fit that on one page. But because people are terrified of a second page, they shrink their font size for resume sections until it’s unreadable.
Don't sacrifice your reader's eyesight for a page count. If you’re a mid-career professional, two pages is fine. If you’re a recent grad, yeah, keep it to one. But keep it readable. A one-page resume in 9-point font is worse than a two-page resume in 11-point font.
Every single time.
Accessibility and the Aging Recruiter
Let’s talk about something most "career coaches" ignore: biology.
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Presbyopia is a real thing. It’s the gradual loss of your eyes' ability to focus on nearby objects, and it hits almost everyone over the age of 45. Guess who often holds the senior positions in HR or the C-suite? People over 45.
If you send a resume with 10-point light-grey font to a hiring manager who forgot their reading glasses at home, your resume is going in the "later" pile. And "later" usually means "never."
Stick to high-contrast colors (black text on a white background) and a size that doesn't require a microscope.
Does the font style matter as much as the size?
Sorta.
Sans-serif fonts like Helvetica, Roboto, or Open Sans are generally considered easier to read on screens. Since most resumes are viewed on monitors these days, these are safe bets. They look "clean" even at smaller sizes.
Serif fonts like Georgia or Garamond are beautiful and feel more "prestigious" or "traditional." They’re great for law, academia, or high-end finance. But they can get "muddy" if the font size is too small or if the screen resolution is low. If you love a serif, keep it at 11-point minimum.
Digital vs. Print: The Great Divide
In 2026, most resumes stay digital. But occasionally, you’ll go to an in-person interview and hand over a physical copy.
Paper is much more forgiving than a screen. 10-point font that looks a bit cramped on a 13-inch laptop screen often looks elegant and crisp on a piece of heavy-duty 32lb resume paper.
If you know you’re printing, you can get away with slightly smaller sizes. But since you usually send the file via email first, optimize for the screen. That means 11-point font is the safest "universal" size for the body. It’s big enough for the screen and perfect for the page.
Testing Your Resume Legibility
Before you hit send, do the "Arm’s Length Test."
Open your resume on your computer at 100% zoom. Step back. Can you see where one job ends and another begins? Can you read your name? If it looks like a grey blur, your font size is wrong, or your line spacing is too tight.
Speaking of spacing—don't forget the white space.
You can have the perfect font size for resume body text, but if your line spacing (leading) is set to "Single," the letters will touch. Try a line spacing of 1.15 or 1.2. It gives the letters room to breathe. It makes the whole document feel less "urgent" and more professional.
Professional Advice for Specific Industries
Different worlds have different vibes.
- Creative Industries (Design, Media): You have more leeway. You might use a 9-point font for a sidebar or a 30-point font for a stylistic header. It’s about the "look."
- Traditional Industries (Law, Banking): Stick to the script. 11-point Times New Roman or 10-point Arial. Anything else looks like you’re trying too hard.
- Tech (Software Engineering): Clean, modern, and efficient. 10.5-point sans-serif fonts like Inter or Lato are very popular right now.
Avoid these fonts at any size
It doesn't matter what size you pick if the font itself is a disaster.
Avoid Comic Sans (obviously), Papyrus, and Courier. Courier is a "monospaced" font, meaning every letter takes up the same amount of space. It makes your resume look like it was written on a 1970s typewriter. While "retro" is a vibe for your Instagram, it’s not a vibe for your career. It also takes up way too much horizontal space, forcing you to use an even smaller font size just to fit your sentences.
The Checklist for Your Next Edit
If you're looking at your document right now, here is exactly how to fix your sizing in five minutes.
- Select all body text. Set it to 11pt. If it’s a "small" font like Garamond, try 12pt.
- Highlight your name. Set it to 22pt. Bold it.
- Find your section headers. Set them to 15pt. Add a bit of space before each one to separate the sections.
- Check your margins. If you’re struggling for space, don't drop the font size below 10. Instead, shrink your margins to 0.5 inches. It's a much better way to "cheat" space.
- Save as a PDF. Never send a Word doc. Word docs can mess up your font scaling depending on the version the recruiter is using. A PDF locks your font size in place forever.
Summary of Sizes
To keep it simple:
- Body Text: 10–12 points.
- Section Headers: 14–16 points.
- Your Name: 18–24 points.
- Contact Info: 10 points (can be slightly smaller than body).
Actionable Next Steps
Now that you've got the technical specs, it's time to apply them. Open your current resume and check the "Properties" or "Character" panel. If you see anything under 10 or over 12 for your bullet points, change it immediately.
After adjusting the sizes, read through your bullet points again. You'll likely find that increasing the font size to 11 or 12 forces you to be more concise. This is a good thing. Stronger verbs and shorter sentences are always better than "fluff" in a tiny font.
Once you’ve settled on a size, send a test PDF to your own phone. Open it. If you can read it without zooming in, you’ve nailed the font size for resume requirements for 2026. If you're still struggling to fit everything, consider moving your contact info to a single line or using a two-column layout for your skills section to save vertical space.