iPhone and iPad can be great productivity machines. The new iOS 11 features will make things easier. But because iOS is a closed system, there are always some friction points. One of them is the lack of customization. There’s no easy way to add your own custom fonts in apps like MS Word or Keynote. But of course, there’s a third party app that can help you out.

All Fonts is a $0.99 app for iPhone and iPad that lets you install any font file in TTF and OTF format directly to the OS. This means that any third party app that can look up the font directory on the device can use the custom fonts. Apps like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Apple’s iWork suite already support this feature. So do smaller writing apps. Getting fonts installed is a bit tedious but once that’s done, you don’t need to do anything else on a per-app basis. In true Apple fashion, it just works.

Download: All Fonts

How to Transfer Fonts from PC to iPhone or iPad

All Fonts has a feature that lets you transfer font files from your PC to your iOS device wirelessly using the Wi-Fi Transfer feature. This only works if both the devices are on the same Wi-Fi network.

First, keep the font files ready to go on your Windows PC or Mac. Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to transfer fonts from PC to iPhone or iPad:

Step 1: On your iPhone or iPad, launch the All Fonts app. Make sure you’re on the Transferred Fonts tab. You’ll see that there’s nothing here. On the top, you’ll find the sharing URL.

Step 2: Go to your PC or Mac, open a browser like Chrome or Safari and enter the URL that’s shown in the All Fonts app.

Step 3: You’ll see a transfer UI here. Drag and drop the font files from the folders to this window and they’ll be transferred directly. While you do this, make sure the iOS device is running and All Fonts app is open.

The font will show up in the Transferred Fonts section, at the top.

How to Import Fonts from Dropbox to iPhone or iPad

If you already have the fonts saved in Dropbox, you don’t even need your PC to install fonts. Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to import fonts from Dropbox to iPhone or iPad:

Step 1: Open the Dropbox app and find the font you want to install. Tap on the font.

Step 2: Dropbox will tell you that the font can’t be previewed. Tap on the Menu button and select Export.

Step 3: You’ll see the Share sheet. Tap on Open in.

Step 4: Now select Copy to All Fonts.

Just like that, the All Fonts will open and you’ll see the font added to the top of the Transferred Fonts list.

How to Install Custom Fonts on iPhone or iPad

Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to install custom fonts on your iPhone or iPad:

Step 1: Once the font is transferred, you’ll see it in the Transferred Fonts list. Tap on a font and you’ll see a preview. At the bottom, there’s the Install Font button. Tap on it.

Step 2: You’ll be prompted to open the font in Settings. Confirm here.

Step 3: The Settings app will ask if you want to install the profile. Tap on Install.

Step 4: In the second popup, tap on Install again.

Now the font has been installed. Repeat the same process for any other font you want to install.

In this example, I’ve used Dropbox. But you can basically import fonts using the Share sheet from any other app that supports the feature. Apps like Mail, iCould Drive, OneDrive, and others will work just as well.

How to Use Custom Fonts on iPhone or iPad

Now that the fonts of your choice are installed, let’s see how to use them. I’m going to use Keynote as an example but it will work similarly for other apps.

Basically, find the font picker in the third-party app and you’ll find your custom font in the list. Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to use the custom fonts on your iPhone or iPad that you have installed:

Step 1: First, relaunch the app to make sure the newly installed font shows up on the list.

Step 2: In Keynote or other iWork apps, tap on the text and then select the paint brush icon. From here, find the font section, tap on it, scroll and find your new font.

Step 3: You can tap on the new font to select it. If you’ve installed multiple versions of the font, tap on the little i icon to select an alternative version of it like Italic and so on.

Download: All Fonts

The Alternative: AnyFonts

All Fonts is of course not the only app that does this. We choose to highlight the app because it offers the broadest options when it comes to importing fonts. The only problem I have with the app is that there’s no way to install multiple fonts at the same time. You have to go through the tedious process of installing profiles for each and every version of the font.

If that’s a bit too much for you. Look into AnyFonts. It costs $1.99 and its similar to All Fonts. Except you can install multiple fonts and open zip files directly in the app. If you buy the pro version using in-app purchase, you can add more than 1000 fonts right from the app.

I would love to be able to change the system font on my iPhone and iPad, but this the closest you can do to use a custom funky font to jazz up that presentation you’re working on.

Which fonts did you end up installing? What’s the project that you’re working on? Share with us in the comments below.

This post was last updated on July 26, 2021.