Fabulous fonts

[Queensize]

I am working on an application for a permanent academic post at a very good university. What font gives the best first impression to readers and why? And what's the worst (besides papyrus and comic sans 😁)?

Just stick to classics - avoid Comic Sans and you will be fine.

Serif fonts are supposed to be more easily read - but I guess on a screen, a sans might be better?

Not necessarily the font but weird line/para breaks and messy/uneven spacing/bullets piss me off. As do spelling/grammar errors.

I'm in the process of long/short-listing academic posts at the moment (at a very good RG university), so what works/doesn't work in an application is very much at the forefront of my mind.

Thing with fonts is that you shouldn't notice them - you only notice fonts when they're terrible and don't work!
Obviously stay away from ones like Comic Sans and the handwriting ones. I'm not too keen on Times New Roman but I'm not sure I can articulate why. I also hate 'fat' fonts like Arial or Bahnschrift or Biome.

I'd say you can't go wrong with a Calibri or Kigelia Arabic - nice and simple and 'clean'.

For me, though, more important than the font in terms of presentation of applications: the spacing and formatting. On spacing - don't bunch everything together too tightly - give a little space between lines. You don't need to set 1.5 or double line spacing but do try and have some line spacing if possible. And most definitely leave a line space between different sections of the CV.

On formatting - make sure everything is consistent and well-aligned. Make sure you use the same date format throughout your CV.

Thinking about these things just gives a sense of someone well-prepared who's taken time over the application. That's before we get to structure and content

Worst of all times, so bad that I'm willing to cut Comic Sans users considerable slack in comparison: Brush Script the unspeakable one!

I like Garamond for a nice, clean, readable and professional serif and, personal taste, I guess, Frutiger as my preferred sans-serif.

I used to work at a place that had the latter as its standard. My current workplace has something else - very okay, not too ugly, but it does feel like a downgrade.

Agree, I like Garamond too

I used to work at an old and famous public school. Arial, size 11, was their font of choice. Now in local government. Again, Arial is preferred, or Calibri.

I once had a colleague (the latter job) who was a bit passive-aggressive and labelled all his slides for a PowerPoint presentation in Chiller.

Good luck with your application.

@REP22

I used to work at an old and famous public school. Arial, size 11, was their font of choice. Now in local government. Again, Arial is preferred, or Calibri.

I once had a colleague (the latter job) who was a bit passive-aggressive and labelled all his slides for a PowerPoint presentation in Chiller.

Good luck with your application.

Arial size 11 is my university's font of choice.

I hate it

Verdana or Helvetica are really easy to read

What font does the institution use in its official communications /website? I would use that.

bookman old style

It will depend a bit on your field, but to me this is a classic ‘trick’ question. I would, and others too, be looking for all your freeform works to be in Arial size 11 with 2cm margins all round. This is the UKRI grant submission format. When they ask for freeform, they’re really asking do you know what a grant looks like.

I work for an RG and we use Georgia 11. It looks really nice. Good luck

I always use Malgun Gothic. Very clean and lots of space