Set a default font for whole iOS app?

Question

It seems to be possible in iOS 5 using the UIAppearance proxy.

 [[UILabel appearance] setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:@"YourFontName" size:17.0]];

That will set the font to be whatever your custom font is for all UILabels in your app. You'll need to repeat it for each control (UIButton, UILabel, etc.).

Remember you'll need to put the UIAppFonts value in your info.plist and include the name of the font you're including.

Swift 5

Base on Fábio Oliveira's answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/23042694/2082851), I make my own swift 4.

In short, this extension exchanges default functions init(coder:), systemFont(ofSize:), boldSystemFont(ofSize:), italicSystemFont(ofSize:) with my custom methods.

Note that it's not fully implement, but you can exchange more methods base on my implementation.

import UIKit

struct AppFontName {
    static let regular = "CourierNewPSMT"
    static let bold = "CourierNewPS-BoldMT"
    static let italic = "CourierNewPS-ItalicMT"
}

extension UIFontDescriptor.AttributeName {
    static let nsctFontUIUsage = UIFontDescriptor.AttributeName(rawValue: "NSCTFontUIUsageAttribute")
}

extension UIFont {
    static var isOverrided: Bool = false

    @objc class func mySystemFont(ofSize size: CGFloat) -> UIFont {
        return UIFont(name: AppFontName.regular, size: size)!
    }

    @objc class func myBoldSystemFont(ofSize size: CGFloat) -> UIFont {
        return UIFont(name: AppFontName.bold, size: size)!
    }

    @objc class func myItalicSystemFont(ofSize size: CGFloat) -> UIFont {
        return UIFont(name: AppFontName.italic, size: size)!
    }

    @objc convenience init(myCoder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        guard
            let fontDescriptor = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "UIFontDescriptor") as? UIFontDescriptor,
            let fontAttribute = fontDescriptor.fontAttributes[.nsctFontUIUsage] as? String else {
                self.init(myCoder: aDecoder)
                return
        }
        var fontName = ""
        switch fontAttribute {
        case "CTFontRegularUsage":
            fontName = AppFontName.regular
        case "CTFontEmphasizedUsage", "CTFontBoldUsage":
            fontName = AppFontName.bold
        case "CTFontObliqueUsage":
            fontName = AppFontName.italic
        default:
            fontName = AppFontName.regular
        }
        self.init(name: fontName, size: fontDescriptor.pointSize)!
    }

    class func overrideInitialize() {
        guard self == UIFont.self, !isOverrided else { return }

        // Avoid method swizzling run twice and revert to original initialize function
        isOverrided = true

        if let systemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(systemFont(ofSize:))),
            let mySystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(mySystemFont(ofSize:))) {
            method_exchangeImplementations(systemFontMethod, mySystemFontMethod)
        }

        if let boldSystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(boldSystemFont(ofSize:))),
            let myBoldSystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(myBoldSystemFont(ofSize:))) {
            method_exchangeImplementations(boldSystemFontMethod, myBoldSystemFontMethod)
        }

        if let italicSystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(italicSystemFont(ofSize:))),
            let myItalicSystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(myItalicSystemFont(ofSize:))) {
            method_exchangeImplementations(italicSystemFontMethod, myItalicSystemFontMethod)
        }

        if let initCoderMethod = class_getInstanceMethod(self, #selector(UIFontDescriptor.init(coder:))), // Trick to get over the lack of UIFont.init(coder:))
            let myInitCoderMethod = class_getInstanceMethod(self, #selector(UIFont.init(myCoder:))) {
            method_exchangeImplementations(initCoderMethod, myInitCoderMethod)
        }
    }
}


class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
    // Avoid warning of Swift
    // Method 'initialize()' defines Objective-C class method 'initialize', which is not guaranteed to be invoked by Swift and will be disallowed in future versions
    override init() {
        super.init()
        UIFont.overrideInitialize()
    }
    ...
}

There is also another solution which will be to override systemFont.

Just create a category

UIFont+SystemFontOverride.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIFont (SystemFontOverride)
@end

UIFont+SystemFontOverride.m

@implementation UIFont (SystemFontOverride)

#pragma clang diagnostic push
#pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wobjc-protocol-method-implementation"

+ (UIFont *)boldSystemFontOfSize:(CGFloat)fontSize {
    return [UIFont fontWithName:@"fontName" size:fontSize];
}

+ (UIFont *)systemFontOfSize:(CGFloat)fontSize {
    return [UIFont fontWithName:@"fontName" size:fontSize];
}

#pragma clang diagnostic pop

@end

This will replace the default implementation and most UIControls use systemFont.

If you're using Swift, you can create a UILabel extension:

extension UILabel {

    @objc var substituteFontName : String {
        get { return self.font.fontName }
        set { self.font = UIFont(name: newValue, size: self.font.pointSize) }
    }

}

And then where you do your appearance proxying:

UILabel.appearance().substituteFontName = applicationFont

There is equivalent Objective-C code using UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR on a property with the name substituteFontName.

Addition

For the case where you'd want to set bold and regular fonts separately:

extension UILabel {

    @objc var substituteFontName : String {
        get { return self.font.fontName }
        set { 
            if self.font.fontName.range(of:"Medium") == nil { 
                self.font = UIFont(name: newValue, size: self.font.pointSize)
            }
        }
    }

    @objc var substituteFontNameBold : String {
        get { return self.font.fontName }
        set { 
            if self.font.fontName.range(of:"Medium") != nil { 
                self.font = UIFont(name: newValue, size: self.font.pointSize)
            }
        }
    }
}

Then for your UIAppearance proxies:

UILabel.appearance().substituteFontName = applicationFont
UILabel.appearance().substituteFontNameBold = applicationFontBold

Note: if you're finding that the bold substitution isn't working, it's possible the default font name doesn't contain "Medium". Switch out that string for another match as needed (thanks to Mason in the comments below) .

Developing from Hugues BR answer but using method swizzling I've arrived to a solution that is successfully changing all the fonts to a desired font in my app.

An approach with Dynamic Type should be what you should look for on iOS 7. The following solution is not using Dynamic Type.

---

Notes:

• the code below, in its presented state, was never submitted to Apple approval;
• there is a shorter version of it that passed Apple submission, that is without the - initWithCoder: override. However that won't cover all the cases;
• the following code is present in a class I use to set the style of my app which is included by my AppDelegate class thus being available everywhere and to all UIFont instances;
• I'm using Zapfino here just to make the changes much more visible;
• any improvement you may find to this code is welcome.

---

This solution uses two different methods to achieve the final result. The first is override the UIFont class methods + systemFontWithSize: and similar with ones that use my alternatives (here I use "Zapfino" to leave no doubts that the replacement was successful).

The other method is to override - initWithCoder: method on UIFont to replace any occurrence of CTFontRegularUsage and similar by my alternatives. This last method was necessary because I've found that UILabel objects encoded in NIB files don't check the + systemFontWithSize: methods to get their system font and instead encode them as UICTFontDescriptor objects. I've tried to override - awakeAfterUsingCoder: but somehow it was getting called for every encoded object in my storyboard and causing crashes. Overriding - awakeFromNib wouldn't allow me to read the NSCoder object.

#import <objc/runtime.h>

NSString *const FORegularFontName = @"Zapfino";
NSString *const FOBoldFontName = @"Zapfino";
NSString *const FOItalicFontName = @"Zapfino";

#pragma mark - UIFont category
@implementation UIFont (CustomFonts)

#pragma clang diagnostic push
#pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wobjc-protocol-method-implementation"
+ (void)replaceClassSelector:(SEL)originalSelector withSelector:(SEL)modifiedSelector {
    Method originalMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, originalSelector);
    Method modifiedMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, modifiedSelector);
    method_exchangeImplementations(originalMethod, modifiedMethod);
}

+ (void)replaceInstanceSelector:(SEL)originalSelector withSelector:(SEL)modifiedSelector {
    Method originalDecoderMethod = class_getInstanceMethod(self, originalSelector);
    Method modifiedDecoderMethod = class_getInstanceMethod(self, modifiedSelector);
    method_exchangeImplementations(originalDecoderMethod, modifiedDecoderMethod);
}

+ (UIFont *)regularFontWithSize:(CGFloat)size
{
    return [UIFont fontWithName:FORegularFontName size:size];
}

+ (UIFont *)boldFontWithSize:(CGFloat)size
{
    return [UIFont fontWithName:FOBoldFontName size:size];
}

+ (UIFont *)italicFontOfSize:(CGFloat)fontSize
{
    return [UIFont fontWithName:FOItalicFontName size:fontSize];
}

- (id)initCustomWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {
    BOOL result = [aDecoder containsValueForKey:@"UIFontDescriptor"];

    if (result) {
        UIFontDescriptor *descriptor = [aDecoder decodeObjectForKey:@"UIFontDescriptor"];

        NSString *fontName;
        if ([descriptor.fontAttributes[@"NSCTFontUIUsageAttribute"] isEqualToString:@"CTFontRegularUsage"]) {
            fontName = FORegularFontName;
        }
        else if ([descriptor.fontAttributes[@"NSCTFontUIUsageAttribute"] isEqualToString:@"CTFontEmphasizedUsage"]) {
            fontName = FOBoldFontName;
        }
        else if ([descriptor.fontAttributes[@"NSCTFontUIUsageAttribute"] isEqualToString:@"CTFontObliqueUsage"]) {
            fontName = FOItalicFontName;
        }
        else {
            fontName = descriptor.fontAttributes[@"NSFontNameAttribute"];
        }

        return [UIFont fontWithName:fontName size:descriptor.pointSize];
    }

    self = [self initCustomWithCoder:aDecoder];

    return self;
}

+ (void)load
{
    [self replaceClassSelector:@selector(systemFontOfSize:) withSelector:@selector(regularFontWithSize:)];
    [self replaceClassSelector:@selector(boldSystemFontOfSize:) withSelector:@selector(boldFontWithSize:)];
    [self replaceClassSelector:@selector(italicSystemFontOfSize:) withSelector:@selector(italicFontOfSize:)];

    [self replaceInstanceSelector:@selector(initWithCoder:) withSelector:@selector(initCustomWithCoder:)];
}
#pragma clang diagnostic pop

@end