Set a default font for whole iOS app?

There is also another solution which will be to override systemFont.

Just create a category

UIFont+SystemFontOverride.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIFont (SystemFontOverride)
@end

UIFont+SystemFontOverride.m

@implementation UIFont (SystemFontOverride)

#pragma clang diagnostic push
#pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wobjc-protocol-method-implementation"

+ (UIFont *)boldSystemFontOfSize:(CGFloat)fontSize {
    return [UIFont fontWithName:@"fontName" size:fontSize];
}

+ (UIFont *)systemFontOfSize:(CGFloat)fontSize {
    return [UIFont fontWithName:@"fontName" size:fontSize];
}

#pragma clang diagnostic pop

@end

This will replace the default implementation and most UIControls use systemFont.

Swift 5

Base on Fábio Oliveira's answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/23042694/2082851), I make my own swift 4.

In short, this extension exchanges default functions init(coder:), systemFont(ofSize:), boldSystemFont(ofSize:), italicSystemFont(ofSize:) with my custom methods.

Note that it's not fully implement, but you can exchange more methods base on my implementation.

import UIKit

struct AppFontName {
    static let regular = "CourierNewPSMT"
    static let bold = "CourierNewPS-BoldMT"
    static let italic = "CourierNewPS-ItalicMT"
}

extension UIFontDescriptor.AttributeName {
    static let nsctFontUIUsage = UIFontDescriptor.AttributeName(rawValue: "NSCTFontUIUsageAttribute")
}

extension UIFont {
    static var isOverrided: Bool = false

    @objc class func mySystemFont(ofSize size: CGFloat) -> UIFont {
        return UIFont(name: AppFontName.regular, size: size)!
    }

    @objc class func myBoldSystemFont(ofSize size: CGFloat) -> UIFont {
        return UIFont(name: AppFontName.bold, size: size)!
    }

    @objc class func myItalicSystemFont(ofSize size: CGFloat) -> UIFont {
        return UIFont(name: AppFontName.italic, size: size)!
    }

    @objc convenience init(myCoder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        guard
            let fontDescriptor = aDecoder.decodeObject(forKey: "UIFontDescriptor") as? UIFontDescriptor,
            let fontAttribute = fontDescriptor.fontAttributes[.nsctFontUIUsage] as? String else {
                self.init(myCoder: aDecoder)
                return
        }
        var fontName = ""
        switch fontAttribute {
        case "CTFontRegularUsage":
            fontName = AppFontName.regular
        case "CTFontEmphasizedUsage", "CTFontBoldUsage":
            fontName = AppFontName.bold
        case "CTFontObliqueUsage":
            fontName = AppFontName.italic
        default:
            fontName = AppFontName.regular
        }
        self.init(name: fontName, size: fontDescriptor.pointSize)!
    }

    class func overrideInitialize() {
        guard self == UIFont.self, !isOverrided else { return }

        // Avoid method swizzling run twice and revert to original initialize function
        isOverrided = true

        if let systemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(systemFont(ofSize:))),
            let mySystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(mySystemFont(ofSize:))) {
            method_exchangeImplementations(systemFontMethod, mySystemFontMethod)
        }

        if let boldSystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(boldSystemFont(ofSize:))),
            let myBoldSystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(myBoldSystemFont(ofSize:))) {
            method_exchangeImplementations(boldSystemFontMethod, myBoldSystemFontMethod)
        }

        if let italicSystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(italicSystemFont(ofSize:))),
            let myItalicSystemFontMethod = class_getClassMethod(self, #selector(myItalicSystemFont(ofSize:))) {
            method_exchangeImplementations(italicSystemFontMethod, myItalicSystemFontMethod)
        }

        if let initCoderMethod = class_getInstanceMethod(self, #selector(UIFontDescriptor.init(coder:))), // Trick to get over the lack of UIFont.init(coder:))
            let myInitCoderMethod = class_getInstanceMethod(self, #selector(UIFont.init(myCoder:))) {
            method_exchangeImplementations(initCoderMethod, myInitCoderMethod)
        }
    }
}


class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
    // Avoid warning of Swift
    // Method 'initialize()' defines Objective-C class method 'initialize', which is not guaranteed to be invoked by Swift and will be disallowed in future versions
    override init() {
        super.init()
        UIFont.overrideInitialize()
    }
    ...
}

If you're using Swift, you can create a UILabel extension:

extension UILabel {

    @objc var substituteFontName : String {
        get { return self.font.fontName }
        set { self.font = UIFont(name: newValue, size: self.font.pointSize) }
    }

}

And then where you do your appearance proxying:

UILabel.appearance().substituteFontName = applicationFont

There is equivalent Objective-C code using UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR on a property with the name substituteFontName.

Addition

For the case where you'd want to set bold and regular fonts separately:

extension UILabel {

    @objc var substituteFontName : String {
        get { return self.font.fontName }
        set { 
            if self.font.fontName.range(of:"Medium") == nil { 
                self.font = UIFont(name: newValue, size: self.font.pointSize)
            }
        }
    }

    @objc var substituteFontNameBold : String {
        get { return self.font.fontName }
        set { 
            if self.font.fontName.range(of:"Medium") != nil { 
                self.font = UIFont(name: newValue, size: self.font.pointSize)
            }
        }
    }
}

Then for your UIAppearance proxies:

UILabel.appearance().substituteFontName = applicationFont
UILabel.appearance().substituteFontNameBold = applicationFontBold

Note: if you're finding that the bold substitution isn't working, it's possible the default font name doesn't contain "Medium". Switch out that string for another match as needed (thanks to Mason in the comments below) .

It seems to be possible in iOS 5 using the UIAppearance proxy.

 [[UILabel appearance] setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:@"YourFontName" size:17.0]];

That will set the font to be whatever your custom font is for all UILabels in your app. You'll need to repeat it for each control (UIButton, UILabel, etc.).

Remember you'll need to put the UIAppFonts value in your info.plist and include the name of the font you're including.