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How to change the keyboard font on iPhone

Published · 3 min read

There is no font setting for the iPhone keyboard. The one thing you can change is how heavy its letters are. To see your keys in Didot, a typewriter face or a handwritten one, you need another keyboard — and it helps to know the difference between a font on the keys and “fancy fonts”.

In short. Apple’s keyboard always uses the system font. Settings › Accessibility › Display & Text Size › Bold Text makes it heavier; the text-size slider does not change the keys. For another face, add a keyboard that offers key fonts under Settings › General › Keyboard › Keyboards and pick the font in its app.

What Apple lets you change

Bold Text, under Settings › Accessibility › Display & Text Size, makes text heavier across the phone, the letters on the keys included. That is the whole list: the keyboard has no font, size or style setting, and Larger Text changes the text in apps, not the keys. To make the whole keyboard bigger, see how to make the iPhone keyboard bigger.

A font on the keys is not a “fancy font”

Search the App Store for keyboard fonts and most results are a different thing: they type Unicode symbols that look like letters — 𝓈𝒸𝓇𝒾𝓅𝓉, 𝕕𝕠𝕦𝕓𝕝𝕖, ⓑⓤⓑⓑⓛⓔ. Those paste into any app, but autocorrect cannot read them and screen readers may spell them out. A key font only changes how the keys are drawn. What you type stays ordinary text.

A key font compared with styled lettersLeft: a key drawn in Didot types the ordinary word Alice. Right: a styled-letters key types the Unicode symbols for a script Alice. A font on the keys Styled letters A Alice types plain letters: corrections keep working 𝒜 𝒜𝓁𝒾𝒸ℯ types Unicode symbols: corrections pause
Changing the font on the keys changes what you see, not what you send.

Both have their place. Our fancy-fonts explainer covers when the symbols are fine and when to avoid them.

Key fonts in Pilcrow

In Pilcrow’s theme editor, Letters sets the face for any theme:

  • Four faces in every script: system, rounded, serif and mono, with no font download.
  • Nineteen font families every iPhone already carries, such as Avenir, Futura, Didot, American Typewriter and Chalkduster, each sized so its capitals are as tall as the system face’s.
  • 17 letter styles for the keys — script, fraktur, double-struck, bubbles, small caps and more.
  • Letter size from 80 to 130 % of the usual.
The same key letters in six facesKeys showing Aa in a system, rounded, serif, mono, Didot and Chalkduster face. Aa System Aa Rounded Aa Serif Aa Mono Aa Didot Aa Chalkduster
Four faces work in every script, and the named families are ones every iPhone already carries. (Drawn in your browser’s fonts, so a face your device lacks falls back.)
Keys with letters in the Didot font.
Didot on the keys. Corrections and suggestions work as usual, because the text you type is unchanged.

If you want the styled letters in your messages too, Pilcrow has an optional mode for that, off unless you switch it on. Key fonts are part of custom themes, which you unlock after the three free days.

Last checked October 2026 against Apple’s iPhone User Guide for iOS 27. If anything here is out of date, write to info@pilcrowtype.com.

Sources

  1. Apple, Make text easier to read on iPhone
  2. Apple, Add or change keyboards on iPhone
  3. Apple Developer, Configuring open access for a custom keyboard

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