--- title: "LaTeX CV Template: One Source, Two Builds" description: "Which LaTeX CV template? Wrong question. Keep one .tex source, two builds: a two-page single-column CV and a full-length academic CV." canonical_url: "https://resufit.com/blog/mastering-latex-cv-templates-a-comprehensive-guide-for-academic-and-technical-professionals/" lang: "en" published: "2024-12-22" updated: "2026-07-28" author: "Stefan" categories: ["Job Application Materials","Resume & CV Tools"] tags: ["LaTeX Templates","CV Writing","resume formatting","Technical Resumes","International Formats"] --- # LaTeX CV Template: One Source, Two Builds Search "latex cv template" and the results hand you a gallery: `moderncv`, `AltaCV`, a two-column sidebar layout copied from a famous one-page resume. Every one of them answers a question about looks. `moderncv` itself is now flagged on CTAN as incompatible with LaTeX's tagged-PDF output, and no gallery mentions that one career needs two documents of very different lengths. **Direct Answer:** Choose a build discipline instead of a class. Keep **one .tex source, two builds: a two-page single-column CV and a full-length academic CV**. The short build goes to employers and parsers. The long build goes to the committees that publish no page limit at all. [ResuFit](https://app.resufit.com/signup) handles the wording of the short build against a specific posting. **What you'll take away:** - Why `moderncv` now sits on CTAN's **"Tagged PDF - incompatible"** list - The **one .tex source, two builds: a two-page single-column CV and a full-length academic CV** recipe, in about five lines of TeX - Where the two-page ceiling is stated outright, and where no ceiling exists - How to switch on tagged PDF output with `\DocumentMetadata` - A comparison table for the two builds ## Why is "which LaTeX CV template" the wrong question? A template is a layout. What decides whether your CV gets read is the shape you send, and the required shape changes with whoever opens it. The [University of Cambridge Careers Service](https://www.careers.cam.ac.uk/files/phdpostdoccvbook.pdf) (accessed July 2026) puts it bluntly in its guide for PhDs and postdocs: **"A CV for use outside academia must not be more than two pages. This is non-negotiable."** Its own comparison table gives the academic CV **no page limit** and the industry R&D CV **two pages** plus an optional publications appendix. [Harvard's Mignone Center for Career Success](https://cdn-careerservices.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2024/07/2024-gsas-cvs-and-cover-letters.pdf) (2024) states the other half: **"Unlike a resume, there is no page limit, but most graduate student CVs are two to five pages in length."** [Prospects](https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/example-cvs/academic-cv-example) (Jisc, accessed July 2026) repeats the split for UK graduates: academic CVs are **often several pages long** and should be kept to three pages where possible. Its separate [CV-writing guide](https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-cv) (Jisc, accessed July 2026) quotes the careers service team at the University of Chester recommending CVs of **no longer than two A4 pages**, with academic CVs "slightly longer". Two audiences, two documents, one career. That is the entire case for **one .tex source, two builds: a two-page single-column CV and a full-length academic CV**. ## Is moderncv still a safe LaTeX CV class? Here is the part the template roundups have not caught up with. [CTAN](https://ctan.org/pkg/moderncv) lists `moderncv` (**version 2.6.1, dated 2026-06-24**) under the topic **"Tagged PDF - incompatible"**, a [topic page](https://ctan.org/topic/tagged-pdf-incompatible) whose own description reads "packages which are not tagging compatible". `currvita` sits on the same list, and so does KOMA-Script's `scrlttr2`, the class many people use for the accompanying cover letter. Tagging matters because of what landed underneath it. [LaTeX News 42](https://latex-project.org/news/latex2e-news/ltnews42.pdf) (LaTeX Project, November 2025) reports that tagged and accessible PDF output has left prototype status and **"can be used in production workflows ... as long as one restricts the documents to already-supported packages"**, with a live per-package tagging-status database to check against. [Overleaf's documentation](https://docs.overleaf.com/writing-and-editing/creating-accessible-pdfs) (2026) describes the mechanism on its own platform: **TeX Live 2025** emits tags once a `\DocumentMetadata` declaration sits above `\documentclass`. An untagged PDF is still readable. Its text is selectable and a parser can pull characters out of it. What it lacks is declared structure, so a machine sees a page where a tagged file would show a heading followed by a list. Parsing behaviour varies from system to system, which is the reason to produce the tagged file and then test a parse rather than assume either outcome. That gives you a rule you can check instead of a taste you have to defend: pick a class the tagging-status database supports, and keep the CV inside it. Plain `article` with `geometry`, `hyperref` and your own section formatting gets you further than most gallery classes, and it survives both builds. ## How do I build two CVs from one .tex file? This is the part LaTeX does that no word processor and no online builder matches. The two shapes come out of the same file, so a corrected date or a new paper is fixed once. ```latex % cv.tex \DocumentMetadata{tagging=on, lang=en-GB} \documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article} \usepackage[margin=2cm]{geometry} \usepackage{hyperref} \newif\iflongcv \ifdefined\LONGCV \longcvtrue \fi \begin{document} \input{sections/header} \input{sections/experience} \input{sections/education} \iflongcv \input{sections/publications-full} \input{sections/teaching} \input{sections/grants} \else \input{sections/publications-selected} \fi \end{document} ``` Two commands produce the two files: ```bash latexmk -pdf -jobname=cv-employer cv.tex latexmk -pdf -jobname=cv-academic -usepretex -pretex="\def\LONGCV{}" cv.tex ``` That conditional is the whole trick behind **one .tex source, two builds: a two-page single-column CV and a full-length academic CV**. Everything shared lives in `sections/`, the divergence lives in five lines, and the two PDFs cannot drift apart because there is only one set of facts. A word processor asks you to maintain two documents and hope you remember to edit both. **ResuFit rewrites the wording of the short build for the job you are applying to**, which is the part the typesetting engine has no opinion about. You can start from your existing PDF at [ResuFit](https://app.resufit.com/signup) and keep the LaTeX source as your record. ## What belongs in the employer build? Keep it to two pages, one column, and headings a human and a parser both recognise. 1. **Contact block in the body text**, never in the page header or footer 2. **Standard headings**: Experience, Education, Skills, Publications (selected) 3. **Reverse chronological order** inside each section 4. **Bullets instead of tables**, for anything that looks like a grid 5. **Selected publications**, five to ten, with the full list left to the long build 6. **A text PDF**, so the text can be selected in a viewer The formatting restraint here is the same discipline our [minimalist resume template guide](https://resufit.com/blog/minimalist-resume-templates-the-elegant-solution-to-stand-out-in-todays-job-market/) applies inside a word processor, and the parse test is covered in full in our [plain text resume guide](https://resufit.com/blog/plain-text-resumes-a-complete-guide-for-ats-success-in-the-modern-job-market/). If your job titles undersell your skills, the structure in our [functional resume guide](https://resufit.com/blog/functional-resume-templates-in-word-a-complete-guide-for-skill-focused-job-seekers/) transfers to LaTeX without changing any of this. ## The two builds compared | | Employer build | Academic build | | --- | --- | --- | | **Pages** | Two, described as non-negotiable by Cambridge | No page limit (Harvard GSAS, 2024) | | **Columns** | One | One | | **Publications** | Selected, or an appendix | Complete | | **Headings** | Experience, Education, Skills | Field conventions, including grants and teaching | | **Class** | Tagging-supported | Tagging-supported | | **Output file** | `cv-employer.pdf` | `cv-academic.pdf` | | **Source** | The same `cv.tex` | The same `cv.tex` | ## Which gallery habits should you drop? | Gallery habit | What to do instead | | --- | --- | | Two-column sidebar layout | One column, top to bottom | | Skill rating bars and rings | Named tools with a context line | | A class flagged incompatible with tagged PDF | A class the tagging-status database supports | | `tabular` used to position sections | Section headings and lists | | One document stretched to serve both audiences | Two builds from one source | Heavier design work belongs in a different tool and a different audience. Our [InDesign resume guide](https://resufit.com/blog/elevate-your-job-application-professional-resume-templates-in-indesign/) covers that route and where it is worth the trouble. ## The short version The honest answer to "which LaTeX CV template" is a build discipline: **one .tex source, two builds: a two-page single-column CV and a full-length academic CV**. Pick a class that survives tagging, keep the short build to one column and two pages, let the long build run as far as the record goes, and let a five-line conditional do the rest. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Which LaTeX CV template should I use? Pick a build discipline rather than a class. Keep one .tex source, two builds: a two-page single-column CV and a full-length academic CV. The University of Cambridge Careers Service (accessed July 2026) states that [a CV for use outside academia "must not be more than two pages"](https://www.careers.cam.ac.uk/files/phdpostdoccvbook.pdf), while its academic CV has no page limit. ### Is moderncv still a good LaTeX CV class in 2026? It is worth checking before you commit. [CTAN](https://ctan.org/pkg/moderncv) lists moderncv (version 2.6.1, dated 2026-06-24) under the topic "Tagged PDF - incompatible", which CTAN describes as packages that are not tagging compatible. If you want a tagged PDF, choose a class that supports it. ### How long should an academic CV be? There is no fixed limit. Harvard's Mignone Center for Career Success (2024) writes that ["unlike a resume, there is no page limit, but most graduate student CVs are two to five pages in length"](https://cdn-careerservices.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2024/07/2024-gsas-cvs-and-cover-letters.pdf). [Prospects](https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/example-cvs/academic-cv-example) (Jisc, accessed July 2026) suggests keeping academic CVs to three pages where possible. ### Do applicant tracking systems read PDFs produced by LaTeX? A LaTeX PDF carries real text, so its characters are extractable. How well any given system reconstructs sections and dates varies by system, so build the file, run it through a parse, and read what comes back rather than trusting the layout. Single column, standard headings and no tables for layout give the parser the least to guess at. ### How do I produce a tagged, accessible PDF from LaTeX? Put a `\DocumentMetadata` declaration above `\documentclass`. [Overleaf's documentation](https://docs.overleaf.com/writing-and-editing/creating-accessible-pdfs) (2026) describes TeX Live 2025 generating tags automatically from that declaration, with keys including tagging, tagging-setup, pdfstandard and lang. [LaTeX News 42](https://latex-project.org/news/latex2e-news/ltnews42.pdf) (LaTeX Project, November 2025) notes this works in production as long as the document stays within already-supported packages. ### Can I generate the publication list from BibTeX in both builds? Yes, and it is the main reason the two builds stay in sync. One caveat on class choice: the [koma-moderncvclassic](https://ctan.org/pkg/koma-moderncvclassic) package on CTAN exists because "the original moderncv-class is incompatible with BibLaTeX", so check BibLaTeX support before you build a publication list around a CV class. Source: