Classic · Two columns · ATS 4/5
Formal CV template
Two columns divided by a single rule — no fills, no tints, no shaded sidebar.
Classic layouts follow conventions that predate the web, which is precisely why they still work in academia, law, government and the older professions. A two-column page without a photo, which buys you room for a long skills or certification list without pushing your experience onto a third page.
Live preview of the Formal 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 Formal CV layout
Who it’s for
The readers and situations this layout was drawn for.
- Law, accountancy and financial services
- Applications to long-established institutions
- Candidates with long skills or certification lists
Key features
What is actually different about this template on the page.
- 30% left column divided by a full-height rule
- Underlined headings shared by both columns
- Full-width name rule above both columns
- Reproduces exactly in black and white
ATS score 4/5 · Strong
How this layout behaves in an applicant tracking system
It scores 4 out of 5, which is high for a split page. The main column carries the whole career narrative, so even a parser that mishandles the sidebar recovers the part that matters most.
Skills, languages and certifications sit in the side column, so those are the entries most likely to move in the extracted text; experience and education stay in the wide column and stay in sequence.
A single column parses more reliably than two, in every system we have tested against. If the application goes through a portal you do not recognise, or the employer is large enough to screen automatically, send a one-column version instead — the ATS CV templates are built for that job, and your content moves across without being retyped.
- Reading order
- Two blocks
- 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 Formal CV is the right answer to
A direct application to a mid-sized employer
Small enough that a human opens the file, structured enough that the wide column still parses if it is loaded into a database later — the position most applications actually occupy. The reader it was drawn for: Law, accountancy and financial services.
Credentials in order
A narrow column of credentials beside a full-width record of positions held keeps a long formal history readable without abbreviating any of it.
An application where the work speaks
No photograph means the top third of the page belongs to your name, your title and your profile — the three things a reviewer uses to decide whether to keep reading past six seconds. Formal CV has no photo slot to remove, so the same file works in every market you send it to.
Make it yours
Customising Formal CV
Accent colour
Formal CV ships with #1e293b as its accent. Near-black or a very dark neutral is the honest choice. These layouts are designed to survive being photocopied and scanned by a committee secretary, and a mid-tone accent is the first thing to disappear when they are.
Fonts and heading style
A serif body is the point of this family. If you switch to a sans, drop the font size a notch — the spacing is set for serif text and looks loose without it. 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
The column split is fixed, but everything inside it is not: type size, line height, section spacing and page margins all adjust, and on a divided page the margins are the setting that buys you the most room without crowding the rule between the columns.
Sections and order
Education often outranks experience here, and publications, awards and references all have a legitimate place. Reordering takes one drag, which matters because the convention differs by field and by country. 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.
Formal CV: common questions
Alternatives
Related templates
Senior Product Designer
Senior product designer with nine years of experience shaping B2B SaaS products used by more than two million people. I pair rigorous discovery with fast, high-fidelity prototyping, and I am happiest when a design decision can be traced back to a measured user outcome. Previously led the design system that unified four product surfaces at Atlas Cloud, cutting new-feature design time by 40%.
Design lead for the Workspace pillar — onboarding, billing and the admin console — supporting 2.1M monthly active users across web and mobile.
- Rebuilt the self-serve onboarding flow, lifting activation from 34% to 58% within two quarters.
- Created and shipped the Atlas Design System (180 components, 3 platforms), reducing time-to-first-prototype by 40%.
- Introduced a fortnightly research cadence; 46 studies run in 18 months now inform the roadmap.
- Mentored four designers, two of whom were promoted to senior level.
Second designer in a 25-person fintech startup. Owned the merchant-facing dashboard end to end, from problem framing through to shipped interface.
- Shipped a reconciliation dashboard that cut average support tickets per merchant by 31%.
- Ran the first accessibility audit in company history and closed 92% of WCAG AA issues.
- Established the component library that the engineering team still builds on today.
Agency work across fifteen client engagements in retail, travel and public sector, from brand-led marketing sites to internal tooling.
- Delivered a booking flow redesign that increased completed reservations by 22%.
- Standardised the studio’s handoff process, halving design-to-development clarification cycles.
Thesis on trust signals in financial interfaces, supervised by the LIG research group.
An open-source UI kit for North African e-commerce, with first-class RTL support and Arabic type pairing guidance.
- 4.1k GitHub stars and 60+ contributors.
- Adopted by three regional marketplaces.
A volunteer-built platform matching solar installers with rural cooperatives; designed and built the entire front end.
- Deployed across 12 cooperatives in the Souss-Massa region.
Over 300 hours of one-to-one mentoring for designers entering the industry, with a focus on the MENA region.
A field study of how visual and copy signals change completion rates in remittance flows.
Academic CV
classic · one column
Senior Product Designer
Senior product designer with nine years of experience shaping B2B SaaS products used by more than two million people. I pair rigorous discovery with fast, high-fidelity prototyping, and I am happiest when a design decision can be traced back to a measured user outcome. Previously led the design system that unified four product surfaces at Atlas Cloud, cutting new-feature design time by 40%.
Design lead for the Workspace pillar — onboarding, billing and the admin console — supporting 2.1M monthly active users across web and mobile.
- Rebuilt the self-serve onboarding flow, lifting activation from 34% to 58% within two quarters.
- Created and shipped the Atlas Design System (180 components, 3 platforms), reducing time-to-first-prototype by 40%.
- Introduced a fortnightly research cadence; 46 studies run in 18 months now inform the roadmap.
- Mentored four designers, two of whom were promoted to senior level.
Second designer in a 25-person fintech startup. Owned the merchant-facing dashboard end to end, from problem framing through to shipped interface.
- Shipped a reconciliation dashboard that cut average support tickets per merchant by 31%.
- Ran the first accessibility audit in company history and closed 92% of WCAG AA issues.
- Established the component library that the engineering team still builds on today.
Agency work across fifteen client engagements in retail, travel and public sector, from brand-led marketing sites to internal tooling.
- Delivered a booking flow redesign that increased completed reservations by 22%.
- Standardised the studio’s handoff process, halving design-to-development clarification cycles.
Thesis on trust signals in financial interfaces, supervised by the LIG research group.
An open-source UI kit for North African e-commerce, with first-class RTL support and Arabic type pairing guidance.
- 4.1k GitHub stars and 60+ contributors.
- Adopted by three regional marketplaces.
A volunteer-built platform matching solar installers with rural cooperatives; designed and built the entire front end.
- Deployed across 12 cooperatives in the Souss-Massa region.
For the Atlas Cloud marketing relaunch.
Over 300 hours of one-to-one mentoring for designers entering the industry, with a focus on the MENA region.
A field study of how visual and copy signals change completion rates in remittance flows.
Classic Professional
classic · one column
Senior Product Designer
Senior product designer with nine years of experience shaping B2B SaaS products used by more than two million people. I pair rigorous discovery with fast, high-fidelity prototyping, and I am happiest when a design decision can be traced back to a measured user outcome. Previously led the design system that unified four product surfaces at Atlas Cloud, cutting new-feature design time by 40%.
Design lead for the Workspace pillar — onboarding, billing and the admin console — supporting 2.1M monthly active users across web and mobile.
- Rebuilt the self-serve onboarding flow, lifting activation from 34% to 58% within two quarters.
- Created and shipped the Atlas Design System (180 components, 3 platforms), reducing time-to-first-prototype by 40%.
- Introduced a fortnightly research cadence; 46 studies run in 18 months now inform the roadmap.
- Mentored four designers, two of whom were promoted to senior level.
Second designer in a 25-person fintech startup. Owned the merchant-facing dashboard end to end, from problem framing through to shipped interface.
- Shipped a reconciliation dashboard that cut average support tickets per merchant by 31%.
- Ran the first accessibility audit in company history and closed 92% of WCAG AA issues.
- Established the component library that the engineering team still builds on today.
Agency work across fifteen client engagements in retail, travel and public sector, from brand-led marketing sites to internal tooling.
- Delivered a booking flow redesign that increased completed reservations by 22%.
- Standardised the studio’s handoff process, halving design-to-development clarification cycles.
Thesis on trust signals in financial interfaces, supervised by the LIG research group.
An open-source UI kit for North African e-commerce, with first-class RTL support and Arabic type pairing guidance.
- 4.1k GitHub stars and 60+ contributors.
- Adopted by three regional marketplaces.
A volunteer-built platform matching solar installers with rural cooperatives; designed and built the entire front end.
- Deployed across 12 cooperatives in the Souss-Massa region.
For the Atlas Cloud marketing relaunch.
Over 300 hours of one-to-one mentoring for designers entering the industry, with a focus on the MENA region.
A field study of how visual and copy signals change completion rates in remittance flows.
Elegant Serif
classic · one column
Senior Product Designer
Senior product designer with nine years of experience shaping B2B SaaS products used by more than two million people. I pair rigorous discovery with fast, high-fidelity prototyping, and I am happiest when a design decision can be traced back to a measured user outcome. Previously led the design system that unified four product surfaces at Atlas Cloud, cutting new-feature design time by 40%.
Design lead for the Workspace pillar — onboarding, billing and the admin console — supporting 2.1M monthly active users across web and mobile.
- Rebuilt the self-serve onboarding flow, lifting activation from 34% to 58% within two quarters.
- Created and shipped the Atlas Design System (180 components, 3 platforms), reducing time-to-first-prototype by 40%.
- Introduced a fortnightly research cadence; 46 studies run in 18 months now inform the roadmap.
- Mentored four designers, two of whom were promoted to senior level.
Second designer in a 25-person fintech startup. Owned the merchant-facing dashboard end to end, from problem framing through to shipped interface.
- Shipped a reconciliation dashboard that cut average support tickets per merchant by 31%.
- Ran the first accessibility audit in company history and closed 92% of WCAG AA issues.
- Established the component library that the engineering team still builds on today.
Agency work across fifteen client engagements in retail, travel and public sector, from brand-led marketing sites to internal tooling.
- Delivered a booking flow redesign that increased completed reservations by 22%.
- Standardised the studio’s handoff process, halving design-to-development clarification cycles.
Thesis on trust signals in financial interfaces, supervised by the LIG research group.
An open-source UI kit for North African e-commerce, with first-class RTL support and Arabic type pairing guidance.
- 4.1k GitHub stars and 60+ contributors.
- Adopted by three regional marketplaces.
A volunteer-built platform matching solar installers with rural cooperatives; designed and built the entire front end.
- Deployed across 12 cooperatives in the Souss-Massa region.
Over 300 hours of one-to-one mentoring for designers entering the industry, with a focus on the MENA region.
A field study of how visual and copy signals change completion rates in remittance flows.
Executive Classic
classic · one column
Senior Product Designer
Senior product designer with nine years of experience shaping B2B SaaS products used by more than two million people. I pair rigorous discovery with fast, high-fidelity prototyping, and I am happiest when a design decision can be traced back to a measured user outcome. Previously led the design system that unified four product surfaces at Atlas Cloud, cutting new-feature design time by 40%.
Design lead for the Workspace pillar — onboarding, billing and the admin console — supporting 2.1M monthly active users across web and mobile.
- Rebuilt the self-serve onboarding flow, lifting activation from 34% to 58% within two quarters.
- Created and shipped the Atlas Design System (180 components, 3 platforms), reducing time-to-first-prototype by 40%.
- Introduced a fortnightly research cadence; 46 studies run in 18 months now inform the roadmap.
- Mentored four designers, two of whom were promoted to senior level.
Second designer in a 25-person fintech startup. Owned the merchant-facing dashboard end to end, from problem framing through to shipped interface.
- Shipped a reconciliation dashboard that cut average support tickets per merchant by 31%.
- Ran the first accessibility audit in company history and closed 92% of WCAG AA issues.
- Established the component library that the engineering team still builds on today.
Agency work across fifteen client engagements in retail, travel and public sector, from brand-led marketing sites to internal tooling.
- Delivered a booking flow redesign that increased completed reservations by 22%.
- Standardised the studio’s handoff process, halving design-to-development clarification cycles.
Over 300 hours of one-to-one mentoring for designers entering the industry, with a focus on the MENA region.
Government CV
classic · one column
Senior Product Designer
Senior product designer with nine years of experience shaping B2B SaaS products used by more than two million people. I pair rigorous discovery with fast, high-fidelity prototyping, and I am happiest when a design decision can be traced back to a measured user outcome. Previously led the design system that unified four product surfaces at Atlas Cloud, cutting new-feature design time by 40%.
Design lead for the Workspace pillar — onboarding, billing and the admin console — supporting 2.1M monthly active users across web and mobile.
- Rebuilt the self-serve onboarding flow, lifting activation from 34% to 58% within two quarters.
- Created and shipped the Atlas Design System (180 components, 3 platforms), reducing time-to-first-prototype by 40%.
- Introduced a fortnightly research cadence; 46 studies run in 18 months now inform the roadmap.
- Mentored four designers, two of whom were promoted to senior level.
Second designer in a 25-person fintech startup. Owned the merchant-facing dashboard end to end, from problem framing through to shipped interface.
- Shipped a reconciliation dashboard that cut average support tickets per merchant by 31%.
- Ran the first accessibility audit in company history and closed 92% of WCAG AA issues.
- Established the component library that the engineering team still builds on today.
Agency work across fifteen client engagements in retail, travel and public sector, from brand-led marketing sites to internal tooling.
- Delivered a booking flow redesign that increased completed reservations by 22%.
- Standardised the studio’s handoff process, halving design-to-development clarification cycles.
Thesis on trust signals in financial interfaces, supervised by the LIG research group.
An open-source UI kit for North African e-commerce, with first-class RTL support and Arabic type pairing guidance.
- 4.1k GitHub stars and 60+ contributors.
- Adopted by three regional marketplaces.
A volunteer-built platform matching solar installers with rural cooperatives; designed and built the entire front end.
- Deployed across 12 cooperatives in the Souss-Massa region.
Over 300 hours of one-to-one mentoring for designers entering the industry, with a focus on the MENA region.
A field study of how visual and copy signals change completion rates in remittance flows.
Legal CV
classic · one column
Keep exploring
- All classic templatesEvery design in the Classic family, side by side.
- Two-column templatesEvery split-page layout, for CVs with a lot to fit in.
- CV templatesFormats, page counts and conventions by country and career stage.
- ATS CV templatesWhat a parser does with your file, and the layouts built to survive it.
- CV examplesWorked examples by role, with the wording and structure explained.
- Pricing and plansWhat Pro unlocks, and how the one-off Lifetime plan compares.
Start your CV with Formal 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 to start. A Pro or Lifetime plan unlocks this design and every other one.