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Orilami

ATS Resume Fixer: before and after

An illustration with sample files; your own files show their own results.

BeforeResumes the parser misreads

  • Two columns read straight across

  • Contact lost in the header

  • Skill bars and icons

AfterRebuilt so every parser reads it

  • One clean column

  • Contact moved into the body

  • Plain text, nothing lost

ATS Resume Fixer: Check and Fix How ATS Reads Your Resume

Applicant Tracking Systems read a resume (or CV) as one linear text stream, and they fail in predictable ways: columns interleave, ligatures and broken fonts turn into garbage, content in form fields or images is dropped, and headers get truncated. The ATS Resume Fixer rebuilds your resume or CV as a single-column, machine-readable document, entirely in your browser. Your file never leaves your device.

What it does

  • Spatial linearization: an XY-cut engine finds column gutters and block gaps and flattens columns, sidebars and visual tables into one reading order.
  • Glyph & CMap repair: expands ligatures (fi, fl, ffi…), neutralises Private-Use-Area characters from broken CMaps, and folds exotic bullets, dashes and quotes to plain equivalents.
  • Artifact stripping: the output is rebuilt from text only, so images, skill bars, decorative vectors, form fields and annotations are gone by construction.
  • Semantic restructuring: content is sorted into canonical sections (Contact, Summary, Experience, Skills, Education, Certifications…).
  • Dual-target output: a searchable text PDF plus an unstyled DOCX and Markdown, ready for any parser.
  • Headless ATS audit: a built-in mock parser scores machine readability and projects it onto five pipelines: Workday, Taleo, Greenhouse, Lever and iCIMS.

A note on PDF/A

The PDF is a clean, searchable text PDF with ISO core fonts and a classic cross-reference table, which covers everything an ATS relies on. It is deliberately not stamped as PDF/A-1b/2b: true conformance needs colour profiles, XMP metadata and a validating toolchain that a client-side tool cannot guarantee. You get a document that parses correctly, not a badge it cannot verify.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work for a CV as well as a resume?
Yes. Resume and CV are two names for the same document as far as an applicant tracking system is concerned: it reads the file the same way and fails on the same things. Upload either one as a PDF and the tool rebuilds it the same way.
Why does an applicant tracking system mangle my resume?
Most parsers read a PDF in the order its text was drawn, not the order it looks laid out. Columns, text boxes, tables, headers and icon fonts therefore interleave into nonsense. This tool detects the columns, reads them in human order and rebuilds the document.
What exactly does it change?
Four things: columns are flattened into one reading order, Unicode damage from broken font maps is repaired so text is searchable, the document is rebuilt around real headings, and it is exported as PDF, DOCX and Markdown. The wording of your experience is left alone.
Which systems is the audit based on?
Five parser families: Workday, Taleo, Greenhouse, Lever and iCIMS-style parsing. The rebuilt document is checked against each one's known constraints and the audit reports what fails.
Is the output a PDF/A archival file?
No. It is a standard, searchable PDF with a clean reading order. The tool does not claim PDF/A conformance because it does not run the validation that would require.
Will a recruiter see a different document?
A recruiter sees a clean, conventionally structured resume. The design is simplified on purpose: the layout features that look distinctive to a person are the same ones that break parsers.
Is my resume uploaded anywhere?
No. Text extraction, layout analysis, rebuilding and the audit all run in your browser via a Web Worker. The file never leaves your device.
What are ligatures and PUA characters, and why do they matter?
Ligatures fuse letter pairs like “fi” into one glyph, and a broken font map can decode glyphs into Private-Use-Area code points that extract as garbage, so an ATS may read “certied” for “certified”. The ATS Resume Fixer expands ligatures and neutralises PUA residue so every word extracts intact.
Should I submit the PDF or the DOCX?
Both parse cleanly. Some portals prefer one and some the other, so you get a clean version of each, plus Markdown for any plain-text field.
More questions about Orilami

ATS Resume Fixer at a glance

Key facts about ATS Resume Fixer: where it runs, what it costs, what it accepts and produces, and its limits.
Where it runsEntirely in your browser. Files are never uploaded.
Cost150 tokens per resume (about $1.50 at the base rate)
AcceptsPDF
ProducesA rebuilt, machine-readable PDF plus DOCX and Markdown versions, and a conformance audit scored against five parser families.
BatchOne at a time.
Account neededOnly to spend tokens. Browsing and previewing are free.
What it does not doIt fixes how a resume or CV is structured and parsed. It does not write it for you or judge your experience.