ResumeForge

About

ResumeForge parses section headings from a plain UTF-8 text file, applies styles defined in an .rcss file, and outputs a paginated A4 PDF. Supports single-column and 2-column grid layouts.

Installation

Clone the repository and install in editable mode:

git clone git@github.com:JohnStrong/ResumeForge.git
cd ResumeForge
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Source: github.com/JohnStrong/ResumeForge

Commands

validate working

Validate an RCSS style file for syntax errors. Reports the first error with line and column number.

resumeforge validate --style resume.rcss

render working

Render a plain-text CV to a styled PDF using an RCSS style file.

resumeforge render --input resume.txt --style resume.rcss --output resume.pdf

version working

resumeforge version

RCSS DSL

RCSS is a minimal CSS-like language with three selector types:

• @font-face { ... } — custom font registration (optional)
• layout { ... } — page-level settings (mode, columns, margins, font)
• section[name="HEADING"] { ... } — per-section styles matched by heading text

Font face properties

Used inside @font-face { ... } (optional — falls back to Helvetica):

• font-family — font family name to register (e.g. "Carlito")
• src — path to regular weight TTF (e.g. "fonts/Carlito-Regular.ttf")
• src-bold — path to bold weight TTF (e.g. "fonts/Carlito-Bold.ttf")

Layout properties

Used inside layout { ... }:

• mode — single or grid
• columns — number of columns (grid mode, currently 2)
• column-widths — width of each column as percentages (grid mode, must sum to 100%, e.g. 30% 70%)
• column-gap — gap between columns (e.g. 6mm)
• margins — page margins: top right bottom left (e.g. 20mm 18mm 20mm 18mm)
• font-family — default font family (e.g. "Helvetica")

Heading properties

Used inside heading { ... } (optional — styles the resume header. If omitted, ATS-friendly defaults are applied):

• font-size — name/first line font size (default: 20pt). Subsequent lines (contact info, title) are scaled down proportionally
• align — text alignment: left, center, right (default: center)
• line-height — line height in mm (default: 7)
• color — text color in hex (default: black)

Section properties

Used inside section[name="..."] { ... }:

Style (applied as PDF state before writing):

• font-size — text size (default: 11pt)
• color — text color in hex (default: black)
• background-color — section fill color in hex (default: none)

Write (control how content is rendered):

• align — left, center, or right (default: left)
• line-height — line height in mm (default: 5)
• display — block (multi-line wrap) or inline (horizontal flow) (default: block)

Layout positioning (grid mode only):

• grid-column — 1 or 2 (required in grid mode)
• padding — inner spacing (default: 0)
• width — proportional column width (default: 1fr)

layout { mode: grid; columns: 2; column-widths: 30% 70%; column-gap: 6mm; margins: 20mm 18mm 20mm 18mm; }

section[name="HEADER"] { grid-column: 1; padding: 8mm; align: center; }
section[name="EXPERIENCE"] { grid-column: 2; padding: 6mm; font-size: 12pt; }

Showcase

1. Write your CV as plain text

Lorem Ipsum
Senior Software Engineer
lorem.ipsum@fakeemail.xyz | +44 0000 000000

Links
github.com/loremipsum
linkedin.com/in/loremipsum
loremipsum.dev

Skills
- Python, 
- TypeScript
- Go
- Rust
- AWS (Lambda, DynamoDB, ECS, CDK)
- Terraform
- PostgreSQL, 
- Redis, 
- Kafka
- System Design
- CI/CD
- Kubernetes
- Observability

Work Experience
Senior Software Engineer - Acme Widget Corp
Jan 2021 - Present
- Architected event-driven microservices processing 2M+ events/day
- Led monolith-to-ECS migration reducing deploy times by 70%
- Designed real-time analytics pipeline using Kafka and Flink
- Mentored 4 junior engineers through pairing and code review

Software Engineer - Placeholder Technologies Inc
Mar 2018 - Dec 2020
- Built REST and gRPC APIs serving 500K daily active users
- Implemented canary deployments reducing rollback incidents by 85%
- Developed internal CLI tooling adopted by 3 engineering teams

Software Engineer - Foobar Systems Ltd
Sep 2015 - Feb 2018
- Developed customer-facing dashboard using React and TypeScript
- Designed multi-tenant SaaS schema in PostgreSQL
- Reduced API response times by 40% through caching

Education
MSc Computer Science - University of Nowhere, 2015
BSc Mathematics - University of Somewhere, 2013

References
Dolor Sit Amet
Engineering Director, Acme Widget Corp
dolor.sit@fakecorp.xyz

Consectetur Adipiscing
CTO, Placeholder Technologies Inc
consectetur@faketech.xyz

2. Style it with RCSS

@font-face { font-family: "Carlito"; src: "examples/fonts/Carlito-Regular.ttf"; src-bold: "examples/fonts/Carlito-Bold.ttf"; }

layout { mode: grid; columns: 2; column-widths: 30% 70%; column-gap: 6mm; margins: 20mm 18mm 20mm 18mm; font-family: "Carlito"; }

heading { font-size: 20pt; align: center; line-height: 7; color: #555555; }

section[name="Links"] {
  color: #336699;
  line-height: 5;
  grid-column: 1;
}

section[name="Skills"] {
  line-height: 5;
  grid-column: 1;
}

section[name="Work Experience"] {
  line-height: 5;
  grid-column: 2;
}

section[name="Education"] {
  line-height: 5;
  grid-column: 2;
}

section[name="References"] {
  color: #555555;
  line-height: 5;
  grid-column: 2;
}

3. Render to PDF

resumeforge render --input examples/resume.txt --style examples/valid.rcss --output examples/resume.pdf

Result

Troubleshooting