ATS Format
Why Your Resume Should Have No Tables or Graphics
Tables and graphics are the two things that quietly wreck a parse. One scrambles your text into nonsense, the other erases it. Here is exactly what happens to each element inside an ATS, and the plain-text fix that keeps your content readable.
Key Takeaways
An ATS reads your resume as one stream of text. A table has more than one reading path, so the parser splices cells together and your details come out as word salad.
Graphics are invisible to a parser. It reads the text layer and skips images, so a logo, a headshot, a chart, or a skill bar simply is not there as far as the software is concerned.
Nothing here auto-rejects you. Broken elements sort you lower and keep you out of searches, which buries you rather than deleting you. The fix and the payoff are the same.
Everything a table or graphic did can be said in plain text a parser reads cleanly. You can see exactly what the parser pulls free before you apply.
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Should a Resume Have Tables or Graphics for ATS?
No. Keep tables and graphics off an ATS resume. A single column of real text with plain bullet lists is what parses cleanly, and it can carry everything the fancy version was carrying.
The pitch for tables and graphics is that they look organized. To a human eye, they do.
The problem is that the software reading you first does not see a layout. It sees a stream of text, and these two things wreck that stream in different ways.
Tables scramble
A table gives the parser more than one path to follow, so it merges cells and your text comes out jumbled and out of order.
Graphics disappear
An image has no text layer to read, so a logo, a chart, or a skill bar is invisible. Whatever it stood for is simply gone.
Why Do Tables Break ATS Parsing?
Because a parser reads one line at a time, and a table has columns sitting side by side on the same line. The software crosses the columns as it reads, so content that belongs apart gets stitched together.
I fed a two-column table into our own parser to show you the shape of the damage. On the page it looked tidy. As text, it came apart.
What you see on the page
Senior Analyst | Python, SQL
Northwind Corp | Tableau, Excel
2021 to Present | Airflow
What the parser stores
Senior Analyst Python, SQL Northwind Corp Tableau, Excel 2021 to Present Airflow
Now your title, employer, dates, and tools are one run-on string. When a recruiter searches for a Senior Analyst who used Airflow, the record technically holds both words, but the structure that made them mean something is gone.
This is the same failure that sinks two-column layouts even without a literal table. For the full mechanism, read how ATS parse resumes and the one-column versus two-column breakdown.
What Each Element Does to the Parse, and the Fix
Every visual trick a resume template reaches for lands in one of three buckets: it scrambles, it disappears, or it is risky enough to avoid. Here is each one and what to use instead.
| Element | What the parser does | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Two-column table | Scrambles | Cells from both columns splice into one line, so a job title lands next to an unrelated skill. Drop the table, stack everything in one column. |
| Table used just for layout | Risky | Even a borderless one-column table can confuse the reading order on stricter parsers. Use plain paragraphs and bullet lists, no table cells. |
| Text box or floating shape | Often skipped | Text inside a box frequently sits outside the main text flow and gets dropped entirely. Put the words in the body, not in a box. |
| Skill bar or rating dots | Vanishes | It is a graphic, so the skill name may disappear and the level never registers. List the skill as text and show the level in a bullet. |
| Icons for phone, email, location | Ignored | Decorative icons are images the parser skips, and one can swallow the label beside it. Write the plain word: Email, Phone, Location. |
| Company or tool logos | Invisible | A logo is an image with no text layer, so the name it stands for is lost. Type the company or tool name as text instead. |
| Chart or infographic | Invisible | Any result drawn as a graphic does not survive the parse. Move the number into a bullet: raised retention 18 percent, in words. |
| Headshot or photo | Ignored | A photo adds nothing a parser can read and can shift the layout around it. Remove it. US resumes do not need one anyway. |
| Contact in the header or footer | Risky | Some parsers never read the header and footer region, so your email and phone miss their fields. Put contact details in the body, up top. |
Notice the pattern. Every fix moves the same information into plain text. You lose nothing a recruiter needs and gain a resume the software can actually read.
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Read Your Resume the Way the Software Does
The fastest way to catch a scrambled table or a vanished skill is to see the raw text a parser pulls from your file. Upload yours and read exactly what an ATS stores, free and with no signup.
Why Graphics and Skill Bars Vanish
A parser pulls the text layer out of your file. It does not run character recognition on pictures. So anything that lives as an image, and not as typed characters, is invisible to it.
The skill bar is the trap that costs people the most. A rated bar looks like proof you know a tool. To the software it is a colored shape with no words, so the skill it was showcasing never enters your record.
Reads as nothing
Python shown as a four-fifths progress bar. The word Python may not register at all, and the level certainly does not.
Reads clean
Python listed as text in your skills, with the level proven in a bullet: built and shipped three production services in it.
Same for logos, headshots, and charts. If a fact only exists inside a graphic, treat it as unwritten and type it out.
What to Use Instead of Tables and Graphics
The replacements are boring and they work. Each one carries the same meaning in text the parser reads in order.
One column, top to bottom
Give the parser a single reading path. Headings, then the content under each, straight down the page. No side-by-side anything.
Plain bullet lists
Standard round bullets for achievements and grouped skills. They read as clean line items, which is exactly how a parser wants them.
Real text for every fact
Company names, tools, levels, and results typed as words. If it matters, it is text, never an icon, a bar, or a picture.
If you would rather start from a layout that already follows these rules, our free ATS resume templates are single-column and text-only by design, and the full format guide covers every section in order.
Honesty Check
Do Tables and Graphics Get You Rejected?
You will read that a table gets your resume "rejected by the ATS." That overstates it. A table or a graphic does not trip an automatic rejection.
What it does is scramble or erase your content so the software cannot read it. That sinks your ranking and drops you out of the keyword searches a recruiter runs.
You are still in the system. You are just buried where nobody scrolls.
Which is good news, because burial is fixable and it is entirely in your hands. Strip the tables and graphics, move every fact into text, and the same resume that was unreadable becomes one the parser files correctly.
Who wrote this
Rohith Reddy Jarugu, builder of ats resume checker. Ten years in software hiring, 500+ interviews conducted, now building career tools full time. LinkedIn
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Tables and Graphics on an ATS Resume: FAQs
The questions people ask once they realize a nice-looking resume can read as nonsense. Still stuck? Contact us and we'll help.
Should a resume have tables or graphics for ATS?
No. Tables scramble the reading order so your details splice together, and graphics like logos, icons, and skill bars are images a parser cannot read. Use a single column of real text with plain bullet lists. Everything a table or graphic was doing can be said in text the software reads cleanly.
Why do tables break ATS parsing?
An ATS reads a resume as one stream of text, top to bottom, left to right. A table has more than one reading path, so the parser merges cells from different columns into the same line. Your job title ends up next to an unrelated skill, and the record it stores is a jumble a recruiter's search cannot match.
Do graphics and images show up in an ATS?
No. A parser extracts the text layer of your file and does not run character recognition on pictures. A logo, a headshot, a skill bar, or a chart is an image, so whatever it represents is invisible to the software. If a skill only exists as a colored bar, the ATS never sees that skill.
Are skill bars bad for ATS?
Yes. A skill bar is a graphic, so the skill name can vanish and the proficiency level never registers as data. List the skill as plain text in your skills section, and if the level matters, prove it in a bullet: used it daily for three years, shipped X with it.
Do tables and graphics get my resume rejected?
No. They do not trigger an automatic rejection. They scramble or erase your content so the software cannot read it, which sorts you lower in the ranking and keeps you out of keyword searches. You are not deleted; you are buried where a recruiter never looks. The fix is the same either way.
How do I check whether my tables or graphics broke the parse?
Run your file through our free ATS resume parser and read the text it pulls out. If a section reads as jumbled words or a skill is missing, a table or graphic caused it. You can also select all the text in your resume and copy it into a blank document; anything that does not come across is invisible to an ATS too.
Keep Reading
ATS Resume Format
The single-column, reverse-chronological layout an ATS parses cleanly, shown next to one it scrambles, with an element-by-element checklist and a free way to test your file.
Read the guideHow ATS Parse Resumes
An ATS flattens your resume to text, reads it in one order, and maps it to fields. What that does to tables, columns, headers, and graphics, and how to make yours parse cleanly.
Read the guideOne-Column vs Two-Column Resume for ATS
Why a single-column resume parses cleanly and a two-column one gets read across, when a two-column layout is safe, and how to switch to one column without losing content.
Read the guide