How to Format a Resume So ATS Can Actually Read It

You might have the most visually impressive resume in the stack — and it might be the one that gets filtered out first. Resume design that impresses humans can confuse ATS software, causing your application to be misread, mis-scored, or skipped entirely.

Here's exactly how to format your resume to pass ATS screening without sacrificing professionalism.

The Core Problem With Designed Resumes

ATS software is essentially a text extraction engine. It pulls text from your resume and categorizes it — your name, your job titles, your companies, your skills. When your resume uses design elements that interfere with that text extraction, the software either misfiles your information or misses it completely.

Tables, text boxes, columns, graphics, icons, and headers/footers all cause parsing problems. A resume that looks polished in a PDF viewer may look like scrambled data to an ATS.

File Format: What to Use

Unless the job posting specifically requests a different format, submit your resume as a .docx (Word document). Most ATS systems handle Word documents most reliably. Clean PDFs also work well — but "clean" is the key word. An image-based PDF or a PDF created from a design tool like Canva will often fail to parse correctly.

Avoid: .pages, .odt, image files (.jpg, .png), and PDF files created from design software.

Layout: Keep It Simple

The safest ATS-friendly layout is a single-column format. Two-column layouts are increasingly handled by modern ATS systems, but they're still a risk — especially if the ATS reads left-to-right and combines your two columns into one stream of confusing text.

Stick with:

• Single column
• Left-aligned text (not justified)
• Standard margins (0.5–1 inch)
• Clear white space between sections

Fonts: Standard Is Best

Decorative or uncommon fonts can fail to render correctly in ATS systems. Stick to standard, widely supported fonts:

• Calibri (11–12pt body text)
• Arial (10–11pt body text)
• Georgia (11pt body text)
• Times New Roman (11pt body text)
• Garamond (11pt body text)

Font size: 10–12pt for body text, 14–16pt for your name, 11–12pt for section headers.

Section Headers: Use Standard Names

ATS systems are trained to recognize specific section header names. Deviating from these can cause the software to misfile your information. Use these exact headers:

• Work Experience (not "My Career" or "Professional Journey")
• Education (not "Academic Background" or "Where I Studied")
• Skills (not "What I Bring" or "Core Competencies" — though this one is usually fine)
• Summary or Professional Summary
• Certifications
• Projects

What to Avoid Entirely

• Tables — often read as a single line of merged text
• Text boxes — frequently skipped entirely by parsers
• Headers and footers — many ATS systems ignore content in headers/footers completely; put your contact info in the body
• Graphics, icons, and images — cannot be read by text extraction software
• Logos of previous employers
• Horizontal lines as design elements (simple horizontal rules are fine)
• Hyperlinks styled as colored buttons — plain hyperlinked text is fine

Contact Information Placement

Put your contact information — name, phone, email, LinkedIn, location — in the body of your resume, not in the header. Many ATS systems skip header content entirely. Your name should appear at the very top of the document body, not inside a design element.

Can I Still Have a Good-Looking Resume?

Absolutely. Clean, simple, and well-formatted doesn't mean bland. Strong typography, appropriate use of bold text, clean spacing, and a subtle accent color (used sparingly and only for text, not design elements) can make a resume look polished and professional while remaining fully ATS-compatible.