FontSwap has been one of my favorite reasons for jailbreaking, but it isn’t fully compatible with iOS 4.0. It works if you change the Notes or Lockscreen font, but that’s about it. It seemed like there was hope for an updated FontSwap, but the post from Guarav, the author, is now 3 months old. That’s an eternity in iPhone-time.
So what’s a jailbreaker to do? If you are comfortable using SSH or iFile there is a solution, thanks to iPhoneRuler.net. They have a list of iOS 4 compatible fonts and also instructions on how/where to install it…
iPhoneRuler.net has a video tutorial on how to do this using iFile. Otherwise, if you need to learn how to use SSH, follow these links:
- SSH for Windows
- SSH for Mac
Once that’s set up head over to iPhoneRuler’s massive database of fonts, all complete with screenshot examples. Be sure to look for the iOS4 icon at the top right if you want to use it on 4.x.
Once you find one you like, download and unzip the file, then copy the new set into the following folder on your iPhone: /System/Library/Fonts/Cache. Then respring through SB Settings or Winterboard and you’re good to go!
If you want to have different fonts across the phone, only replace the file for the particular font category you want to change, rather than all of them. Here’s a list and screenshot example of the different font categories on the iPhone:
Helvetica.ttc / HelveticaNeue.ttc – system fonts for most everything on iPhone
MarkerFeltThin.ttf – notes font for notes app
LockClock.ttf – lockscreen clock font
PhonepadTwo.ttf – phone app font (not the dial pad)
PhoneKeyCaps.ttf – keyboard font
The files do replace the stock iPhone fonts, so be sure to make a back-up or rename them so you can restore them if you’d like. This isn’t the easiest or quickest solution, but it’s the best solution I’ve found until we get a FontSwap update.
Any favorite fonts in particular? Do you know of any other sites that have iOS 4 compatible fonts you can download and install?
