How to insert a picture in a CV with LaTeX

A recurrent question on this blog and in general concerns the insertion of a picture in a common Curriculum Vitae, with or without LaTeX.
On this topic, my opinion is that a Curriculum without a picture definitely looks more polished because it’s very hard to insert a picture that fits the professional requirements of a resume.

A very nasty but, alas, common occurrence is that of putting a random picture of yourself just for the sake of putting the picture in. Well, let me put this straight:

NEVER put your Facebook/ picture in your CV, unless you use that very social network for business and professional reasons (designers, entrepreneurs, etc.)

Some very straightforward principles apply when putting the picture in your CV:

The picture should be clear, small, in business attire (if you apply for a corporations that has a business attire policy). In any case, try to be the person you want to be at the interview, which is not necessarily your Facebook self. Even better, delete your public Facebook Profile if that’s gonna show a picture of you sucking up a 5 pints keg of beer.
The picture should not be in utter typographical clash with the rest of the CV. A picture of you trying to lift the “Leaning Tower of Pisa”? No, thank you.
White background is the way to go. Either if you are a Photoshop/Gimp master or if you just happen to shoot a photography with a pretty white wall behind, do get a white background photo (examples below)

Now back to LaTeX, how do we code this up?

The textpos package

From the documentation of the package,

This package facilitates placing boxes at absolute positions on the LATEX page.

Just make sure you include the package in your document preable, like this:

\usepackage{textpos}

and you are ready to go.

We also include dimension references for the units we will be using:

\setlength{\TPHorizModule}{10pt} %controls horizontal movements
\setlength{\TPVertModule}{10pt}  %controls vertical movements

This means that for every time we call the command

\begin{textblock}{<hsize>}(<hpos>,<vpos>)
\includegraphics{picName.jpg}
\end{textblock}

hpos and vpos get multiplied by 10pt (that is, the length we have set \TPHorizModule and \TPVertModule to).

Option 1. Full Body & White Background

In this option, we set a full body with with background on the left of the text, without any impact on the horizontal and vertical motion of the document’s typographical appearance.

\begin{textblock}{1}(-10,0) %
\includegraphics{picName.jpg}
\end{textblock}

Option 2. Face only & White Background

This second option is also acceptable, in my opinion. Just tweak a bit and play with textpos to get the best result out of the picture you have (yours might differ!). I’ve played with the parameters at least 20 times before getting it acceptable.

\setlength{\TPHorizModule}{10pt}
\setlength{\TPVertModule}{10pt}
\begin{textblock}{1}(30,0)
\includegraphics{picName.jpg}
\end{textblock}

Option 3. Face Only & Color Background

Sorry to break it to you, but this is not acceptable!
The picture with this full blown coloured background is just a punch in the eye.
The rectangle at this position of the document breaks its typographical beauty and, more importantly, its horizontal motion.
In other words, the reader and his/her eye do not expect a rectangle at this point, as they’re reading some text and following its flow naturally. In other words, it’s as if they’re hitting their head against a wall all of a sudden.
Also the vertical motion is damaged, because the vertical lines of the rectangle make it difficult to identify the margins of the document.

\setlength{\TPHorizModule}{10pt}
\setlength{\TPVertModule}{10pt}
\begin{textblock}{1}(20,0)
\includegraphics{picName.jpg}
\end{textblock}

Lesson Learned

Don’t put a picture in your CV, unless you know what you are doing.
I, for one, don’t have any intention to throw my picture in my CV any time soon.

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The CV Inn

LaTeX Guide to putting a picture in your CV

by Alessandro