iPhone system font
Solution 1
To the delight of font purists everywhere, the iPhone system interface uses Helvetica or a variant thereof.
The original iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS system interface uses Helvetica. As first noted by the always excellent DaringFireball, the iPhone 4 uses a subtly revised font called "Helvetica Neue." DaringFireball also notes that this change is related to the iPhone 4 display rather than the iOS 4 operating system and older iPhone models running iOS 4 still use Helvetica as the system font.
iPod models released prior to the iPhone use either Chicago, Espy Sans, or Myriad and use Helvetica after the release of the iPhone.
From http://www.everyipod.com/iphone-faq/iphone-who-designed-iphone-font-used-iphone-ringtones.html
For iOS9 it has changed to San Francisco. See http://developer.apple.com/fonts for more info.
Solution 2
If you're doing programatic customisation, don't hard code the system font. Use UIFont systemFontOfSize:
, UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:
and UIFont italicSystemFontOfSize
(Apple documentation).
This has become especially relevant since iOS 7, which changed the system font to Helvetica Neue.
This has become super especially relevant since iOS 9, which changed the system font again to San Francisco.
Solution 3
afaik iPhone uses "Helvetica" by default < iOS 10
Solution 4
Swift
Specific font
Setting a specific font in Swift is done like this:
let myFont = UIFont(name: "Helvetica", size: 17)
If you don't know the name, you can get a list of the available font names like this:
print(UIFont.familyNames())
Or an even more detailed list like this:
for familyName in UIFont.familyNames() {
print(UIFont.fontNamesForFamilyName(familyName))
}
But the system font changes from version to version of iOS. So it would be better to get the system font dynamically.
System font
let myFont = UIFont.systemFontOfSize(17)
But we have the size hard-coded in. What if the user's eyes are bad and they want to make the font larger? Of course, you could make a setting in your app for the user to change the font size, but this would be annoying if the user had to do this separately for every single app on their phone. It would be easier to just make one change in the general settings...
Dynamic font
let myFont = UIFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle: .body)
Ah, now we have the system font at the user's chosen size for the Text Style we are working with. This is the recommended way of setting the font. See Supporting Dynamic Type for more info on this.
Related
Solution 5
You can always use
UIFont *systemFont = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:12];
NSLog(@"what is it? %@ %@", systemFont.familyName, systemFont.fontName);
The answer is:
Up to iOS 6
Helvetica Helvetica
iOS 7
.Helvetica Neue Interface .HelveticaNeueInterface-M3
but you can just use Helvetica Neue
![Ken](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CVvaX.png?s=256&g=1)
Ken
Updated on July 22, 2020Comments
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Ken almost 4 years
What is the name of the default system font on the iPhone?
I would like to retrieve this for customizing a
UIView
. -
Ken over 13 yearsI'm not going to change the system font, that's a bad idea. But I want it for some html in UIWebView.
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Adam Wright over 13 yearsThis doesn't change the system font - it just gives you
UIFont
instances of the system font using the given sizes, and will always return the system fonts regardless of future iOS updates. -
Ken over 13 yearsThe font I'm seeing in my UIWebView doesn't looking like Helvetica to me. I might be wrong but setting the font for my view takes away my doubt.
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Steven Baughman over 12 yearsUIFont *font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize: 12.0]; <!-- gets default font
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Krishnabhadra about 11 yearsThere are easier methods.. But +1 for thinking out of the box
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Augustine almost 11 yearsCurrently it is Helvetica Neue Regular font.
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Dan Rosenstark almost 11 years"don't hard code the system font" is good advice, or really bad advice, depending on the situation. Personally, I wish I had hardcoded
Helvetica
... doing that now. -
Esteve over 10 yearsTotally agree, don't hardcode, please. This should be the right answer to this question
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Anton Gaenko about 10 yearsIt looks better :P
[UIFont systemFontOfSize:[UIFont labelFontSize]];
See my answer below. -
ericosg about 9 yearsas seen by other answers, it depends on iOS version
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Freek Sanders almost 9 yearsFor iOS9 it has changed to San Fransisco. See developer.apple.com/fonts for more info.
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Daniel almost 8 yearsin Swift on iOS 9 I get
.SFUIText-Regular
assystemFont.familyName
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Dan Rosenstark almost 8 years@simpleBob More on that: designforhackers.com/blog/apples-new-san-francisco-font