If you’re using a mobile device to create fabulous social media imagery, it can frustrate when the fonts installed on an iPhone don’t match the typographic vision in your head. However, there is a way around this using a free app. Here is how to install fonts on an iPhone, and it also works on iPads too.
Using iFont to install fonts on an iPhone
We’re going to need an app called iFont. It’s available from the Apple Store but currently requires iOS or iPadOS 16.1 or later. When iFont is installed, click Start Using iFont to access the main screen. iFont can find fonts from certain repositories, use font files from cloud services or on the iPhone. We’ll use the app to install a font from Google.
With iFont open, click Font Finder from the bottom bar, then select Google Fonts. The process from here is reasonably straightforward. Search for the name of the font that you require. If you fancy a little inspiration, click the Sorted by link where you can filter the results in various ways, including by popularity. I’m going to choose the font Ubuntu, which is the one used by the Linux operating system distro. Who’d have thought you’d ever see the day when Ubuntu could be installed on an iPhone, eh?
Type Ubuntu into the search box. A few variations will appear, but I’m choosing the standard Ubuntu version for this iPhone. Press the Get button next to the font and iFont will queue them up, ready for installation.
Click Imported in the bottom left-hand corner and the variations of the Ubuntu font are racked up. We’re going to bulk install the fonts, so click Select in the top left corner.
Select as many of the fonts as you’d like (I’m going ‘full Ubuntu’ on this iPhone) before clicking Install.
iPhone configuration profiles
Let’s be honest with one another. If Apple wanted a straightforward way of installing fonts on an iPhone, they’d have made an app and you wouldn’t be on our site. They haven’t, so you are. I’m about to guide you along a convoluted path, hopping the hoops which Apple users need to navigate when they dare to do unconventional things to their own devices. To get fonts to work, iFont is required to install a configuration profile onto your iPhone.
This page gives you more information about this process and iFont stress that their configuration profiles only concern fonts. If you’re happy to continue, select Continue.
The next page is the iFont configuration profile for the fonts which you’ve selected. Click Next in the top right and on the next page, click Allow.
Then click Settings and head back to the main Settings options. Tap on Profile Downloaded. The following screen gives all the details about which fonts are going to be installed. If you’re happy to proceed, click Install in the top right.
Your iPhone will warn you that the profile that you’re about to install isn’t signed, to which my only answer is that, no, it isn’t. Click Install in the top right (again) then click Install (for the last time, so enjoy it) at the bottom of the screen. The profile installed screen will appear, and as it’s taken so long to get here, have a celebratory sherry before clicking Done in the top right-hand corner.
Do I have to do this nonsense for each new font?
Yeah, sorry. It takes between 10-15 clicks to get the fonts installed onto an iPhone, but at least iFont does the tricky stuff.
Can I remove a font from an iPhone?
Yes, but as this is Apple, it’s a simple but utterly illogical process. To remove the fonts we’ve installed with iFont, we only need to remove the configuration profiles we’ve installed. To do this, open Settings, then General, then VPN & Device Management (yes, really), and the configuration profiles for each of your installed fonts are listed under Configuration Profile. Select the one that you wish to uninstall.
Tap Remove Profile and the font will be uninstalled.
Do installed fonts work with every Apple app?
Most, but not all. The iFont installs cannot work with the keyboard and system font, but the only app which I’ve found that doesn’t work is Notes. I’m writing this article using Scrivener with Intel’s new One Mono font. Using the above method brings these preferences directly to my iPad. With the vast array of media creation apps available for Apple devices, having a few more fonts available has to be a good thing.
Add Comment