Cover Letter Format: The Right Layout, Spacing & Structure (2026)

You have written the words, but the page just looks off. The spacing is uneven, you are not sure what goes where, and you cannot decide whether to send a PDF or a Word file. Formatting is the fussy part of a cover letter, but getting it right matters more than it seems. A clean, standard layout looks professional, reads easily, and passes cleanly through the applicant tracking systems that scan your application before a human ever sees it. Here is exactly how to format a cover letter in 2026.

The standard cover letter format, top to bottom

A cover letter follows a predictable order. Reading from the top of the page down, here is what goes where:

1. 1
   Your contact header: name, email, phone, city, and optionally a LinkedIn or portfolio link.
2. 2
   The date.
3. 3
   The recipient: the hiring manager's name, title, and company, for a formal letter.
4. 4
   A greeting: “Dear [Name],” or “Dear Hiring Manager,”.
5. 5
   The body: an opening hook, one or two middle paragraphs, and a short closing.
6. 6
   A sign-off and your typed name.

For an emailed letter or an online application form, you can drop the date and recipient block and start from the greeting. Your contact details then live in your email signature or the form fields instead.

Margins and spacing

• Margins: one inch on all sides is the safe standard. You can shrink to about 0.7 inch if you need a little more room, but no tighter.
• Alignment: left-align everything. Do not justify the text, which creates awkward rivers of white space.
• Line spacing: single or 1.15 within paragraphs.
• Paragraph spacing: leave a blank line between paragraphs instead of indenting. It is cleaner and easier to scan.

White space is your friend. A letter that breathes is far more inviting than a dense wall of text, and it gives a busy recruiter an easy way in.

Font and size

• Use a clean, professional font: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, or Times New Roman are all safe choices.
• Set the body at 10.5 to 12 points. Your name in the header can be a touch larger.
• Stick to one font. Mixing typefaces looks busy and amateur.
• Black text on a white background. Skip colored text and decorative styling.

How long should it be

Keep it to a single page, which usually means three or four short paragraphs and somewhere between 250 and 400 words. If it spills onto a second page, tighten your sentences rather than shrinking the font to an unreadable size. Recruiters skim, so a short, focused letter respects their time and makes a better impression.

PDF or Word document?

Unless the job posting says otherwise, send a PDF. It locks your formatting in place, so your carefully spaced letter does not rearrange itself on someone else's computer. The one exception is when an application specifically asks for a .docx file, in which case follow that instruction. Either way, name the file clearly, something like Jane-Doe-Cover-Letter.pdf, not document-final-v3.

Formatting for ATS (applicant tracking systems)

Most companies run your application through an ATS before a person reads it. These systems parse your text, and creative layouts can confuse them. To stay ATS-friendly:

• Use a single-column layout. Avoid multiple columns, text boxes, and tables.
• Skip images, logos, icons, and charts. An ATS cannot read them.
• Do not hide important text in the document header or footer, since some systems ignore those areas.
• Stick to standard fonts and a normal top-to-bottom structure.
• Use the same key terms the job description uses, naturally and only where they genuinely fit.

That last point is where wording meets formatting. A clean layout gets your letter parsed correctly, and the right keywords help it score well once it is parsed.

A properly formatted example

Here is how all of that comes together on the page:

Formatting do's and don'ts