InDesign your Resumé

InDesign

your

Resumé

a how-to guide for

creating a professional

resumé using InDesign

InDesign your Resumé

Table of Contents

p4. Glossary

p5. The Importance of Good Design

p6. Setting up the Document

p10. Creating a Grid

p12. Pasting in Content

p14. Styling the Content

p20. Finalizing and Exporting

p22. Dos and Don’ts

p24. Further Resources

4 5

InDesign your Resumé The Importance of Good Design

Glossary

→ Boilerplate: standardized text; a

document that contains complete

resumé content

→ Decorative: fonts that are ornate

and less neutral, such as Papyrus

→ Full-bleed: the page is trimmed so

that some things go off the edge,

instead of having a margin around

the page

→ Grid: system that text-based

designs align to

→ Gutter: space between guides

→ Hard-return: line break created by

pressing Enter. Used to separate

paragraphs.

→ Hierarchy: a typographical system

that deﬁnes and differentiate

between levels of text

→ InDesign: program used for

creating layouts with lots of text

→ Kerning: the space between two

characters

→ Leading: the space between each

line of text. Make sure it’s not too

loose or too tight

→ Margin: the white space around a

page or shape

→ PDF: ﬁle format that anyone can

open, no matter the operating

system. Good ﬁle format for saving

resumés

→ Rule: a line used as a decorative

element or as a way to separate

information

→ Sans serif: font without the small

ﬂourishes on the edge of the

character, such as Arial

→ Serif: font with small ﬂourishes on

the edge of the character, such as

Times New Roman

→ Soft-return: line break created

by pressing Shift + Enter. Used

to separate lines of text within a

paragraph.

→ Tracking: the space between each

character in a word

→ Typography: technique of arranging

text to make content legible,

readable, and appealing when

displayed

→ Weight: different styles of a font,

ie. light, bold, italic

The Importance

of Good Design

→ Like it or not, the resumé is the ﬁrst

impression an employer has of you as an artist

and as a professional. Potential employers will

likely spend an average of 10 seconds on your

resumé. It must be clear and organized, so that

it is easy to pick out important information

at a glance.

Consider your audience—depending on the

industry standard of your profession or major,

you may or may not need to design your

resumé. Check with Career Development if

you are not sure.

Prior to designing your resumé, you should

have a boilerplate text document that contains

all of your experience in one place. The type

of job you are applying for determines which

experiences will be included on your resumé. If

you do not have your resumé built, please refer

to Career Development’s “Building Your Resumé”

handout (see p24).

This is also a good opportunity to spell check

and have your content reviewed by at least one

other person. A good place to do this is during

Career Development’s Drop-In Hours, or in an

appointment with a Peer Career Advisor.

6 7

InDesign your Resumé Setting up the Document

step 01

Setting up the Document

→ First and foremost, after you open InDesign,

navigate to the InDesign tab in the top menu

bar and go to Preferences → Units & Increments.

Here, you can adjust the settings under Ruler

Units from picas to inches. This will make setting

up the document much less confusing.

Next, you need to set up the document.

Under the File tab in the top menu bar go to

New → Document. This is where you set up the

formatting for your document. Make sure the

number of pages is set to 1, and facing pages

is unchecked. The page size should be Letter,

or 8.5”x11”.

8 9

InDesign your Resumé Setting up the Document

Margins refer to the distance between the

content of the document and the edge of the

page. Try to keep your margins between half

an inch and an inch. In the New Document

dialogue, make sure the margins are set to

the desired size.

Columns are another way to organize the page.

Using two columns is a good way to start, with

around 0.5 inch gutter.

You don’t need to worry about changing any

of the other settings in this dialogue. When

you are done, press OK, and you should have

the beginnings of your resumé created!

Tip: Once your page is created, navigate to the Window tab in the top menu bar, then go

to Workspace → [Typography]. This will rearrange the toolbars so that it will be easier

to adjust text.

10 11

InDesign your Resumé

step 02

Creating a Grid

→ Working with a grid is a technique that you

should employ whenever working with text. Grids

ensure that your content will look neat and

organized, making your resumé easier to read.

To create a grid, navigate to the top menu and

go to Layout → Create Guides. Once you are in

the Create Guides dialogue, you can adjust the

amount of rows and columns as needed. A good

setting to use is 9 rows with a gutter of 0.1667

in. You may have created columns when setting

up the document, but you can add more here

if desired. After setting the amount of columns

and rows, under the Options section ensure the

guides ﬁt to the margins, not the page. Press OK.

Tip: Guides won’t show up when you export or print your document. To preview your document

without guides, press W on your keyboard.

12 13

InDesign your Resumé

step 03

Pasting in Content

Tip: Text can be connected between columns. If the text gets cut off in a column, a little red

square with an X will appear. To link the runoff text to another column, click the red x, and

then click the column. The text should now continue into the next column.

→ Use the text tool for creating boxes to paste

your text into. The text tool is located on the left

toolbar, and looks like a capital T. To create text

boxes, select the text tool then click and drag

with your mouse. It’s good to start with three

text boxes: one long box at the top for your

header (name, contact info, title), and two tall

boxes for your sections. Make sure that each box

aligns with the grid.

After creating your text boxes, select the desired

text box, and paste in the appropriate content

from your boilerplate document. You can paste

by navigating to the top menu bar, then select

Edit → Paste. You can also right click within a

textbox and paste from there.

14 15

InDesign your Resumé

step 04

Styling the Content

→ Typography is one of the most important

aspects of a resumé. If your typography isn’t

well-considered, it can make your entire resumé

look unprofessional.

Hierarchy refers to the different levels of

typography within a document. There should

be one element that has the highest level

of hierarchy. Usually this is a title, name, or

heading. The next level of hierarchy is typically

a section title. Body text tends to be the lowest

level of hierarchy.

Most resumés consist of a few levels of

hierarchy, such as a main header (your name)

a sub header (contact info), section titles

(education, experience, etc.), position title

(intern, artist, contractor, etc.), company,

location/date and a body (description).

Tip: When dening levels of hierarchy, follow the rule “distinctly different or exactly the

same.” It is important to create contrast when working with type because too subtle shifts in

contrast can appear like a mistake.

16 17

InDesign your Resumé

A well-designed resumé can be created with just

one font. The key to creating hierarchy with one

font is to use contrasting weights and sizes. For

example, use a larger, bolder font for headers,

and a smaller, lighter font for body copy.

Everyone has different tastes in fonts. The trick

is to keep it professional. Avoid using decorative

fonts like Comic Sans or Papyrus that distract

from the information that really matters.

To adjust fonts in InDesign, highlight the text

you want to change, and click on the Character

menu in the right toolbar. Here, you can adjust

the font, font weight, size, leading, and more.

One of the major mistakes people make when

designing resumés is making their text too big.

Body text can usually be read comfortably at 8pt,

and should never be larger than 10.5pt. Sizing

will always depend on which font you choose,

but a good starting point for body text is 9pt.

Tip: When working with text, turn on Hidden Characters, so you can easily see where you’ve

inserted spaces, soft returns and hard returns. You can do this by navigating to Type in the top

menu, and go all the way to the bottom where it says Show Hidden Characters.

Using adequate spacing throughout your resumé

will ensure that all of your information reads

clearly and legibly. The spacing between lines

of text is called leading. More often than not,

the default leading will be too tight, so it is

important to make the adjustment yourself. To

do this, go to the Character menu (the same

menu where you adjusted the text font and size).

You can adjust the leading using the arrows next

to the two As stacked up next to each other.

Something else that is important to adjust is the

space between paragraphs. Instead of creating

extra line breaks between sections, you can have

more control by setting the speciﬁc spacing

before or after paragraphs. To do this, navigate

to the Paragraph menu on the right toolbar.

You can adjust the paragraph spacing using the

arrows next to the icons depicting a paragraph

with the top or bottom line highlighted.

Styling the Content

Tip: Made a mistake? Press Command + Z on your keyboard to quickly undo. To redo,

press Shift + Command + Z.

18 19

InDesign your Resumé

Using paragraph styles is a shortcut to styling

complete pages of text all at once. Creating

paragraph styles can be tedious, but can save

you so much time and energy.

You can set your paragraph styles by navigating

to the right toolbar and simply opening up the

Paragraph Styles menu. Once here, click on the

icon that looks like a piece of paper to create

new styles.

You should create a new style for each level of

your typographic hierarchy: Heading, Section

Titles, Position, Date/Location, and Body. Do

not worry about make any adjustments to these

styles just yet.

Tip: You can also create Character Styles if you want to change styling within a paragraphs,

like when you want to bold something or have stylized numbers.

Once you have the styles created, go through

your document and change each level of

hierarchy from the default paragraph style

([Basic Paragraph]) to the styles that you just

created. To do this, highlight the text that you

want to set, then navigate to the Paragraph

Styles menu, hold down the ALT key, and click

on the appropriate style. Holding down on the

ALT key ensures that you override any previous

styles applied to the text. Go through your

document and set all of the text, one level of

hierarchy at a time.

When your text is set to its speciﬁc paragraph

style, you can adjust the styling. Double-click

on the paragraph style, and you can adjust

everything mentioned previously in the guide. If

done correctly, you should be able to style each

object within the paragraph style all at once, a

much quicker way than if you were to style one

thing at a time.

Styling the Content

Tip: You can make sure all of your objects are aligned properly by navigating to the top menu

bar and going to Window → Object & Layout → Align. You can use this tool to line up objects

with the page or with each other.

20 21

InDesign your Resumé

step 05

Finalizing and Exporting

→ When you are happy with the way all of the

styling looks, you may want to add additional

elements such as rules or color. If you do decide

to include color, use it sparingly, and make sure

everything still reads well when printed in black

and white.

If you are ﬁnished designing your resumé, make

sure to save it in a place that is easy to locate on

your computer. Your resumé should always be

evolving, so make updates when necessary.

When saving your resumé to send to an employer,

or to use in an online application, export it as a

PDF. You can do this by navigating to File in the

top menu, going to Export, then changing the

format to Adobe PDF (Print).

If you are going to a job interview, you will need

to print your resumé. You can print from either a

PDF or straight from InDesign.

Tip: Make sure to consider what type of paper you print on. A cotton paper or cardstock will

make a much better impression than generic laser print paper.

22 23

InDesign your Resumé

→ retain your personal style

→ make sure the text is legible on-screen

and in print

→ check and double-check for typos

→ have someone edit and review (like a Peer

Career Advisor)

→ try to keep any designs, illustrations or

visual elements to the header area so as

not to be distracting

→ a photocopy test. If you are using color

be sure to print in black and white and

photocopy — can you still read everything?

Dos and Don’ts

Don’t

→ use distracting styling

→ use too many fonts (try to keep it to 2)

→ include full-bleed elements

→ include more than one page

→ use a pre-made template. It’s usually

obvious that it’s pre-made, and will make

it more challenging to customize and ﬁt

your information

→ include a colored background. This is a

great way to anger and deter potential

employers from considering you, because

your resumé could use up a lot of the

printer’s ink

InDesign your Resumé

Further

Resources

→ Lynda (lynda.com/indesign-

tutorials/indesign-cc-essential-

training-2015/368575-2.html)

→ free fonts: Google Fonts

(google.com/fonts); Adobe Typekit (typekit.

com); Font Squirrel (fontsquirrel.com)

→ Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

→ A Type Primer by John Kane

→ other Career Development resources, such

as “Building your Resumé (PDF)”, “Tailoring

your Resumé to the Job you Want (Video)”,

and “Writing Cover Letters (PDF)”

(mica.edu/academic_services_and_libraries/

career_development/career_resources.html)

This guide was designed by Olivia Johnson in 2015.

The typefaces used are Aperҫu by Colophon Foundry,

and PT Mono by Google.