MEC-02 — Font standard
Short answer
MEC-02 checks whether body text uses a font that ATS engines decode reliably. Font names are normalized by stripping subset prefixes and style suffixes; if non-whitelisted fonts cover more than 20% of characters, the rule fails.
Impact
8 pts
Penalty
mechanical · medium
What it checks
- Real font names resolved from the PDF font objects
- Share of characters covered by non-whitelisted fonts
- Decorative or script typefaces in body text
Why it matters
Decorative and script fonts can break glyph-to-unicode mapping, so extracted text comes out with broken ligatures or blank characters. They also slow down the recruiter’s six-second scan.
How to fix it
Switch to Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Helvetica or Times New Roman. Use bold and size contrast for emphasis instead of a second typeface.
Frequently asked questions
Which fonts are safe?
Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Georgia, Times New Roman, Garamond, Verdana, Roboto, Lato, Open Sans and Inter are on the whitelist.
Related rules
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