Simple resume and cover letter template

Dependencies

System Requirements

• LaTeX Distribution: TeX Live (recommended) or MiKTeX
• LaTeX Engine: LuaLaTeX (required for fontspec and custom fonts)
• Command Runner: just (optional, but very convenient)

LaTeX Packages

The following LaTeX packages are required and should be included in your LaTeX distribution:

Core Packages:

• article - Base document class
• fontspec - Font selection for XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX
• geometry - Page layout and margins
• xcolor - Color support (with dvipsnames option)
• graphicx - Graphics inclusion

Formatting Packages:

• parskip - Paragraph spacing
• array - Extended array and tabular environments
• ifthen - Conditional commands
• changepage - Page layout adjustments
• enumitem - Customize list environments
• titlesec - Section title formatting
• textpos - Absolute positioning (with absolute option)
• fancyhdr - Custom headers and footers
• hyperref - Hyperlinks (with hidelinks option)
• tcolorbox - Colored and framed boxes

Utility Packages:

• lipsum - Dummy text (for testing)

Note: Some of these may be unused remnants of previous versions.

Fonts

The template currently requires the following variable fonts (TTF format) in the common/fonts/ directory:

• Merriweather - Used for resume
• Montserrat - Used for cover letter

Font files should be placed in common/fonts/. Download them manually or use the /common/fonts/getfont.sh script to fetch them automatically from the Google Fonts repository.

Example:

cd common/fonts
./getfont.sh merriweather montserrat

Note: If you download the fonts manually, they may have different file names than those in the resume.cls and cover.cls files. Adjust as needed.

Changing Fonts

Create a new font called primaryfont:

\createfont{primaryfont}{Merriweather[opsz,wdth,wght]}

This will create the following definitions that can be used throughout the document:

• primaryfontextralight
• primaryfontlight
• primaryfontmedium
• primaryfontbold
• primaryfontextrabold

Then set the main font to and main sans font:

\setmainfont[Color=primary, Path = \@fontpath,RawFeature={+axis={wght=\@fontweightlight}},Renderer=Harfbuzz]{\@primaryfontfile}
\setsansfont[Path=\@fontpath,RawFeature={+axis={wght=\@fontweightlight}},Renderer=Harfbuzz]{\@primaryfontfile}

Adjust or add weights as desired in common/fonts.tex.

Cover letter signature

If you want to include a signature in the cover letter, add a signature.png file to the common/ directory. It will be displayed at the bottom of the cover letter. Delete the dummy signature file if you don't want to include one.

Compilation

1. Ensure LuaLaTeX is available: lualatex --version
2. Install any missing LaTeX packages
3. Download and place the required fonts in common/fonts/
4. Run just to compile both documents
   • just cover compiles only the cover letter
   • just resume compiles only the resume
   • just clean removes all binaries, logs, and pdf files
   • just show opens resume and cover.
   • just noshow closes resume and cover.
   • just archive app_name creates an archive of the current components
   • just extract app_name extracts an archive

Note: I use Okular for viewing PDFs. It's great for this purpose because it will hot reload after compiling the latex. Adjust the make show directive if you use something else.

Suggested Workflow

Keep template-level improvements on main/master, then archive each application. This avoids maintaining long-lived branches per company.

For each job application:

1. (Optional) Start from a prior application archive:
   • Extract everything: ./archive.sh -x <archive-name>
   • Extract only specific sections: ./archive.sh -xrl <archive-name> (resume + cover letter)
2. Add or update the job posting in job-desc.
3. Update shared info files:
   • common/info/personal.tex - personal information
   • common/info/company.tex - company and role information
4. Tailor resume and cover components as needed:
   • resume/components/*
   • cover/components/*
5. Compile (just) and submit
6. Archive the final application state:
   • ./archive.sh -c <archive-name>
   • or just archive <archive-name>

Reusing Previous Applications

Use extraction flags to pull only what you want from an archive:

# Extract all sections (default with -x)
./archive.sh -x acme_2026

# Extract only resume + cover letter components
./archive.sh -xrl acme_2026

# Extract only shared info
./archive.sh -xi acme_2026

# Extract only job description
./archive.sh -xj acme_2026

This lets you reuse targeted parts without branching for every application.