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ATS-friendly · Single column · ATS 5/5

ATS CV template

One column, one rule, one ink — the most literal reading of what a parser wants.

This family exists for one situation: your file is read by software before any person sees it, and everything decorative has been removed on purpose. One column and no portrait: the plainest structure a CV can have, and the one that travels furthest across markets.

Live preview of the ATS CV template, rendered at full page size with an example CV. The preview is the same code that generates your PDF.

The design

About the ATS CV layout

ATS CV strips the document back to what a resume parser actually reads: a left-aligned name, one wrapped line of plain-text contact details, a single hairline rule, then bold headings in the order you set them. There are no icons, tables, floats or shaded panels, so the whole page is one uninterrupted text flow and every heading maps cleanly to a field. Pick it when the application goes through a portal and you would rather lose the styling than lose a section.

Who it’s for

The readers and situations this layout was drawn for.

  • Applications submitted through job portals
  • Volume hiring and graduate schemes
  • Anyone whose CV was rejected before a human saw it

Key features

What is actually different about this template on the page.

  • Single column with no tables, floats or icons
  • Plain-text contact line separated by pipes
  • Bold headings taken verbatim from your section names
  • Monochrome — reproduces exactly on any printer or scanner

ATS score 5/5 · Excellent

How this layout behaves in an applicant tracking system

Nothing in this layout has to be interpreted. Job titles, employers and dates are ordinary text in an ordinary order, which is what a 5 out of 5 actually means.

Because there is only one text column, an extractor never has to decide which block to read first — the page has exactly one reading order and it is the one you can see.

There is little left to fix here. If you want to see how the rest of the parser-safe range compares — and what a 5 out of 5 is actually measuring — the ATS CV templates page scores every layout on the same criteria.

Parsing checklistATS score 5 out of 5
Reading order
Single flow
Headings
Real text
Tables
None
Images
None
Selectable text
Yes

Scores are our own assessment of how a parser handles the layout — never a guarantee about one specific employer’s system.

In practice

Three situations ATS CV is the right answer to

Templates are chosen badly when they are chosen in the abstract. Here is what sending this one actually looks like.
Case 1

A high-volume application campaign

When you are sending thirty applications in a month, the document has to work unattended. Nothing here needs explaining, reformatting or defending, which is what makes it the version to keep as your default. Where it earns its keep: Applications submitted through job portals.

Case 2

Uploaded, not emailed

Plain headings, plain lists and one text flow mean the file you upload is the file the system reads back: no reordered sections, no dropped job titles, no dates attached to the wrong employer.

Case 3

An anonymised or blind-screening process

Public bodies and larger employers increasingly strip identifying detail before review. A layout with no portrait slot survives that process unchanged, which is one less way for your CV to arrive looking damaged. ATS CV has no photo slot to remove, so the same file works in every market you send it to.

Make it yours

Customising ATS CV

The template sets the structure; everything inside it is yours. Colours, fonts, spacing, section order and paper size are all controls in the CV builder, and the preview updates as you change them — nothing is applied blind.

Accent colour

ATS CV ships with #000000 as its accent. Colour is deliberately minimal. A dark accent on the headings is safe and makes the printed page easier for a human to scan; nothing about the accent affects parsing, because a parser reads text and ignores hue entirely.

Fonts and heading style

Stay with a common sans or serif. Unusual faces can export with non-standard character mappings, which produces a PDF that looks correct and extracts as gibberish — precisely the failure this family exists to prevent. Heading case — uppercase, capitalised or as typed — is a separate switch, and it changes the character of the page more than most people expect.

Spacing and density

Three sliders control density — type size, line height and the gap between sections — and on a one-column page each of them affects the whole document evenly, so fitting two pages into one is a matter of small adjustments rather than deletions.

Sections and order

Use the conventional section names. A screening system matches on headings it recognises, so “Experience” earns matches that “Where I’ve worked” does not, however much better the second one reads. Every section can be renamed, reordered or hidden, and Pro adds custom sections for anything the standard set does not cover.

Paper size and export

A4 or US Letter, switched in one control, with the layout re-flowing to the new page rather than being scaled to fit. The PDF is generated from the same code you see in the preview, so what you approve on screen is what downloads.

ATS CV: common questions

Yes. It scores 5 out of 5 on our parsing checks: one column, standard headings, no tables, no text inside images and no icon fonts. An applicant tracking system reads the sections back in the order you arranged them.

Alternatives

Related templates

Other layouts worth comparing before you commit — the closest matches from ATS-friendly first, then designs with a similar ATS score from other families.

Accountant CV

ATS-friendly · one column

Pro

Entry-Level Resume

ATS-friendly · one column

Free

ATS Resume

ATS-friendly · one column

Free

ATS Simple

ATS-friendly · one column

Free

Student CV

ATS-friendly · one column

Free

Modern ATS

modern · one column

Free

Start your CV with ATS CV

Open it with the example content already in place, replace it with your own, and download a PDF when it reads the way you want. Switching to another template later keeps every word you have written.

Free plan, free download, no credit card.