Resume Builder — Free ATS-Safe CV Maker
A resume builder assembles a formatted CV from a short form. This one produces a print-ready A4 page with real, selectable text, so an applicant tracking system can actually read it. Many online builders render your CV as an image inside a PDF; ATS parsers cannot read text from an image, so those get filtered out before a human sees them. This one does not have that problem.
Fill in your details, pick one of ten templates, and click Print — your browser's print dialog saves a PDF with a text layer. Add a photo, change colours, switch templates at any time; your content carries across. No account, no upload, no watermark.
Resume builder
Your details
PNG, JPEG or WebP up to 2 MB. Cropped square and resized to 400 × 400 in the browser. Never uploaded. A photo is optional and some industries prefer you omit one.
Experience
No experience entries yet. Add one to start.
Education
No education entries yet. Add one to start.
Six to twelve reads best. Repeat the keywords from the job posting you are targeting — that is what ATS parsers match on.
Live preview
ClassicThis is what prints. When you click Print / Save as PDF, the browser produces a PDF with a real text layer — not a screenshot — so parsers can read it.
Where your data goes: nowhere
Your draft is saved in this browser's localStorage so a reload does not lose your work. Your photo is resized on a canvas and embedded locally. No server receives any of it. This page loads no third-party fonts, icon libraries, PDF libraries or analytics scripts — the only cookies are analytics and advertising, which you control in the consent panel.
How to Build a Resume in Four Steps
- Fill in the basics. Name, title, contact and a two- or three-sentence summary. Lead with your role and one concrete result — "Front-end developer who cut checkout load time from 4.2 to 1.1 seconds" beats "passionate creator".
- Add experience and education. Two to four roles is usually enough. Lead each bullet with a verb and end with a number where you can. If you have no formal experience yet, list projects, coursework, volunteering or freelance work under the same heading.
- Match the template to the application. Use Plain when applying through an ATS portal — no columns, no icons, no colour, which is what parsers handle best. Use a visual template when you are emailing a recruiter directly or posting the CV on your own site.
- Print to PDF, or download HTML. Print produces a text-based A4 PDF. Download HTML opens in Word or Google Docs if the employer specifically wants an editable file. Copy plain text pastes cleanly into any online application form.
Your draft is saved in this browser between visits. Come back tomorrow and your content is still there — you only need to press Print again when you are happy.
What Makes a Resume Actually Work
Most resumes fail for reasons that have nothing to do with design taste. Here is what actually moves the needle.
- Match the job posting's words. If the posting says "React" and "TypeScript", do not write "JavaScript frameworks". ATS parsers score on exact keyword overlap, and the recruiter reads the PDF only after that score clears a threshold.
- Lead every bullet with a verb and end with a number. "Rebuilt the checkout, cutting load time from 4.2s to 1.1s" reads as evidence. "Responsible for checkout improvements" reads as filler.
- One page until roughly ten years of experience. Recruiters spend about seven seconds on the first pass. A second page is fine if it earns its place; a second page of padding is not.
- Save as PDF, not as a screenshot inside a PDF. This is the single most common failure. If you use a web-based builder and it exports an image-based PDF, the ATS sees a blank file. This tool avoids that by using the browser's native print, which produces a real text PDF.
- Use the Plain template if the application has an upload field. Clean text, no columns, no icons, no colour. It is not pretty, but it parses every time. Use a visual template when you are emailing a recruiter or applying through a form that asks for a portfolio URL.
- Name the file something useful.
Firstname-Lastname-Role.pdf— notresume-final-v3 (1).pdf.
None of this needs a paid subscription. The two things that actually matter — a text-based PDF and keywords that match the posting — are both things you can control for free with the tools on this page.
What This Builder Actually Does
Every feature below works today. Nothing on this page is marked "coming soon".
Live preview
The panel on the right redraws on every keystroke, so you see exactly what prints before you commit.
Real-text PDF
Export uses the browser's native print dialog. The resulting PDF has selectable text, so ATS parsers can read it.
Ten templates
Plain, Classic, Modern, Professional, Creative, Designer, Picture, Minimal, Executive, Infographic. Switch at any time.
Photo, auto-resized
Upload any photo under 2 MB. Cropped square and scaled to 400 px in the browser, embedded locally.
Draft is remembered
Your form values persist in localStorage. Close the tab, come back tomorrow, keep editing.
Nothing uploaded
All processing is local. Your name, history, photo and links never touch a server.
Known limitations
- The layout of each template is fixed. You choose the content and the template; you cannot rearrange sections or add custom ones.
- The HTML export opens cleanly in Word, Google Docs and LibreOffice, but the resulting file is not a pixel-perfect DOCX. If the employer insists on a true
.docx, open the HTML in Word and use Save As. - Photos larger than 2 MB are rejected rather than silently downscaled, so you know what happened.
- There is no spell check built in. Read the preview carefully before you print — a typo in your own name is invisible to you after the third pass.
- Everything lives in one browser. Clearing site data erases your saved draft.
- The Plain template is the safest choice for ATS portals. Visual templates still produce real text in the PDF, but parsers handle multi-column layouts less reliably.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this resume builder really free?
Yes. There is no account, no watermark, no premium tier and no export limit. The tool is a single page of JavaScript that assembles the document in your browser, so there is no server cost to pass on to you.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. You fill in normal form fields, pick a template, and the preview updates as you type. The export is a finished document. You only need a text editor if you want to change the layout itself, which is not required.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No. Your draft is saved in this browser's localStorage and never transmitted. Your photo, if you add one, is cropped and resized on a canvas in the browser and embedded as a data URL in the preview. No server receives any of it. The site does use analytics and advertising cookies, which you control in the consent panel.
Will the PDF pass an applicant tracking system?
Yes, because the export uses the browser's native print dialog, which produces a PDF containing real, selectable text rather than an image. Some online resume tools render your resume as a picture inside a PDF, and an ATS cannot read the text from a picture. The Plain template is the safest choice because it uses no columns, no icons and no colour, which is what parsers handle best.
How do I export to PDF?
Click Print / Save as PDF or press Ctrl+P. In the print dialog, choose Save as PDF as the destination, set margins to None or Minimum, and turn off headers and footers. The result is a text-based A4 PDF.
How do I export to Word?
Click Download HTML. The file opens in Microsoft Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice as an editable document. Save or export from there as DOCX if the employer specifically requests that format. Do not paste directly from the browser into Word — that carries the site's styling with it.
Can I change templates after filling in?
Yes. Switch at any time and all your content carries across. The content lives in the form, not in the template, so switching only re-renders the layout.
Does it work on mobile?
The form and preview work on phones and tablets. Printing a resume from a phone is possible but the print dialog is clumsier than on desktop. If you are producing a final copy for an application, use a laptop.
Does it work offline?
After the page has loaded once, yes. The editor makes no network requests while you work. The print and download actions are both local browser operations.
How It Works Under the Hood
The builder is plain JavaScript with no framework. The entire export pipeline is browser-native:
- localStorage keeps your draft between visits. It never leaves the browser and is cleared when you clear site data.
- FileReader reads your photo into memory without uploading it.
- HTML Canvas crops and resizes the photo to 400 × 400 so the embedded image stays small.
- window.print() opens the browser's native print dialog. When you choose "Save as PDF", the browser produces a text-based PDF — real characters, real words, real paragraphs — not a screenshot. This is the single biggest reason the PDF is ATS-readable, and it is also why the export works offline and needs no external PDF library.
- Blob and URL.createObjectURL assemble the HTML export into a downloadable file that Word, Google Docs and LibreOffice can open directly.
All user text is HTML-escaped before it appears in the preview or the export, so a stray < in your summary cannot break the page or become a script tag. Photos are cropped on a canvas and embedded as data URLs, so no external image is ever requested and no tracking pixel can be slipped in.
Related Career and Design Tools
These pair well with a resume: a matching portfolio, a cover letter layout, or a business card for the interview.