Classic · Single column · ATS 5/5
Traditional CV template
Headings sit out in the left margin, so every line of content shares one clean edge.
Classic layouts follow conventions that predate the web, which is precisely why they still work in academia, law, government and the older professions. It runs as one column with no photo, which is the combination most application portals and most UK, US and Irish employers prefer.
Live preview of the Traditional 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 Traditional CV layout
Who it’s for
The readers and situations this layout was drawn for.
- Conservative employers and long-established firms
- CVs with many short sections to keep tidy
- Anyone who wants structure without graphics
Key features
What is actually different about this template on the page.
- Section headings in a left margin gutter
- All content aligned to one common indent
- A single rule on the whole document
- Quiet, print-first typography
ATS score 5/5 · Excellent
How this layout behaves in an applicant tracking system
It holds the full 5 out of 5 for a simple reason — no sidebar, no table, no text baked into an image. What you upload is very close to what the system reads back.
Headings are real headings and lists are real lists, so the boundaries between one role and the next survive extraction intact.
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.
- 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 Traditional CV is the right answer to
A large-employer application portal
You are uploading a PDF into a careers site that will index it before a recruiter opens anything. This layout is designed for precisely that first reader, so nothing is lost between the upload button and the recruiter’s screen. A typical example: Conservative employers and long-established firms.
Credentials in order
One column with generous leading suits a document that may legitimately run to three pages — an academic or legal CV is not trying to be a one-page pitch, and compressing it signals the wrong thing.
A UK, US, Canadian or Irish application
Employers in these markets discourage photographs outright — some screening teams remove them before a hiring manager sees the file, to keep the process defensible. Starting without one means nothing has to be removed. Traditional CV has no photo slot to remove, so the same file works in every market you send it to.
Make it yours
Customising Traditional CV
Accent colour
Traditional CV ships with #374151 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
Font size, line height, section spacing and page margins are all sliders. On a single column they behave predictably: reduce section spacing first, margins second, and only then the type size — a CV set below 9.5pt starts to look like an attempt to hide its length.
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.
Traditional CV: common questions
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Keep exploring
- All classic templatesEvery design in the Classic family, side by side.
- One-column templatesThe full single-column range, across all six categories.
- 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.
- Free CV templatesEvery template you can use and download without paying.
Start your CV with Traditional 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.
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