How many lines fit on one page of your HTML CV?

If your CV spills a few lines onto page two, the fix is usually arithmetic, not a new design. Enter the paper size, margin, font size and line height from your CSS, and this calculator tells you how many text lines fit on one page and how much room a font or margin change buys you.

How the estimate works

A point is 1/72 of an inch, which is 0.3528 mm. One line of text takes font size x line height points. The page offers the paper height minus the top and bottom margins. Divide one by the other and you have the number of lines. For A4 with 14 mm margins and 11 pt text at a line height of 1.35, that is 269 mm divided by 5.24 mm, about 51 lines.

It is an estimate. Headings, the space between jobs and any larger name line at the top use more than one body line each. Treat the result as the ceiling and leave a few lines spare. The real test is always the print preview in your browser.

Counting your lines

• Count lines as they wrap on the printed page, not as they sit in your editor. A bullet that runs a few words onto a second line costs two lines.
• Count each section heading as about two lines (the text plus its spacing), and each job heading as one.
• Scroll the print preview and count the lines on page two. That number is how many you need to win back.

Where to get the lines back, in order

1. Trim wrapped bullets. A bullet that wraps by one or two words is the cheapest saving: cut the words and you gain a whole line.
2. Drop the oldest or least relevant lines. A one-page CV is a selection, not a record.
3. Reduce the line height from 1.5 to 1.35. It is barely visible and gains several lines.
4. Reduce the margin to about 12 to 14 mm. Going below that risks clipping on office printers.
5. Reduce the font size last, and not below roughly 10 pt for body text.

Setting the values in CSS

The numbers above map directly onto two rules. Margin lives in @page; the font size and line height live on body:

@page { size: A4; margin: 14mm; }
body { font: 11pt/1.35 Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; }

If your file also pads the on-screen sheet, remove that padding in a print rule, otherwise the margin is applied twice and you lose lines you did not expect to lose. The print-to-PDF guide shows the full print block, and the free blank template already has it.

Checks that still need your eyes

After changing a value, open the print preview, confirm there is no page two, and check that no heading is stranded at the bottom of the page. The free print checker reads your source for missing print rules. If you would rather start from tested designs, CV Sheets is a $9 kit of six single-file templates in A4 and Letter, and the live demo lets you print two of them first.

This calculator does not render your page. It does the line arithmetic only, so it cannot account for fonts that run wider or narrower than expected.