I would like to modify a couple fonts already available on iOS -- for instance, Helvetica Neue -- to use a different line height, and then include these modified fonts in my application bundle. Nevermind why -- let's just say I need to use them in a UITextView, so modifying the appearance with CSS is impossible.
Would Apple reject an app for bundling a modified version of one of these fonts? Would it violate copyright in some way, or perhaps an Apple guideline for developers?
This is not a programming question per se, so I hope no one is offended that I have asked it here -- I did not know of a better place in the StackExchange universe.
It would be a copyright violation.
Related
My App uses a custom ancient font for a language that is about to be extinct, interesting right.
Now I am using the custom font thru out my app but I need to install the font into the iOS operating system I hope this is possible so that I can copy and paste text from my app into other apps like email, SMS and especially Facebook otherwise the chars come up as squares because Apple don't even support their unicode.
I think its possible because AnyFont is an app that does that without jailbreaking.
This feature is a crucial feature for users using the app to be able to communicate with the language.
So this would be much appreciated if someone could help me with some hints please.
I am not sure if I need to post code here !.
Thank you,
Kind Regards,
Will
You have to create a configuration profile for each font. With the manual installation by the user of that profile the font will be available for Numbers, Keynote and some others. It's available since iOS 7.
See Apple's reference page for that. Basically, you have to use the Font Payload:
A Font payload lets you add an additional font to an iOS device. Font
payloads are designated by specifying com.apple.font as the
PayloadType value. You can include multiple Font payloads, as needed.
...
Each payload must contain exactly one font file in TrueType (.ttf)
or OpenType (.otf) format. Collection formats (.ttc or .otc) are not
supported.
You can also take a look at here:
http://www.saturngod.net/create-custom-font-for-ios-7
If you're using a Mac, you can also checkout Apple's Apple Configurator which allows you to create those MDM profiles too.
I've been reading the App Store Review Guidelines (including linked websites in) trying to find if there are some restrictions about the fonts that are used in the app. I'm doing an app which needs to look modern and the typography is a very important thing to make look it. I haven't found any related topics on the official documentation, but i'm not sure they will pass the review. Right now i'm using Roboto font (from Android, yes) because it looks very great but the fact that it's an Android font could bring problems on the approving process. Does anyone had this situation or knows what happened in that case? Is there any restriction about the typography used in the apps? So many thanks!
As long as you have a license ("the rights") to use the font as you are, Apple doesn't care.
App Store Review Guidelines 8.5:
Apps may not use protected third party material such as trademarks, copyrights, patents or violate 3rd party terms of use. Authorization to use such material must be provided upon request.
The license for Roboto is the Apache 2 license, available at http://www.fontsquirrel.com/license/roboto
The main thing to do is not strictly for app store approval (though it may help with human interface guidelines compliance) but for unifying aesthetics. Make sure that there really is a need to use a custom font. iOS includes quite a few fonts: http://iosfonts.com and whenever possible it's always good to use the built in components.
I want to use GOTHAM font in my iOS application. I see how I can drag and use the font since 3.2 but how do I license it?
http://richardwarrender.com/2010/08/custom-fonts-on-ipad-and-iphone/
How do I pay for a license for iOS? I can purchase a license for 1 CPU through here: http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100008
I recently had this exact discussion with H&FJ. They license a whole family (like Gotham) per app, per year. It's an add-on to the desktop license, so you'll need a legit one of those, too.
Probably not appropriate for me to say here what they quoted, but it was either completely reasonable, or completely insane, depending on what you think a font should cost. Let's just say that the pricing reflects corporate branding market economics, not small app developer economics.
Explain your use case to them in an email to oem#typography.com.
Also, I'll point out that you should look at iosfonts.com. The list of built-in fonts is getting pretty impressive. In particular, Helvetica Neue has a ton of different weights available.
You will need to get a commercial license for the font, if there isn't a link easily visible on the site, you should contact the author and ask him/her directly for the price and availability of a commercial license for that specific font.
A commercial license gives you the right of using the product in a commercial project of your own, and to redistribute that product within yours.
I've looked through the site to make sure this isn't a duplicate. Apologies if I've missed something.
I've been doing iPhone development for about a year now, and I'm comfortable with Objective-C, Xcode and Cocoa (at least what's used on the iPhone), but programming for OS X seems much more involved.
What are some good free resources for someone like me? Most of the stuff I've seen is about learning Objective-C and Cocoa, and I really want to get into the parts of IB I'm not familiar with and anything else that's important on OS X that isn't on the iPhone.
While the iPhone development evironment isn't strictly a subset of the Mac, since there are some improved and iPhone-specific bits, it is nearly so (and it's mainly the good bits). Thus, the Mac is probably the easiest platform to move to from iPhone.
On the Mac, you will especially want to learn about Cocoa Bindings, which underly a lot of modern UI work, but aren't (yet) on the phone.
Addressing your specific question, some well-respected free Mac coding resources include:
the canonical cocoa-dev mailing list run by Apple (which, unfortunately, has only the woefully lame web access implemented by Apple, and sporadically augmented by unreliable third-party efforts, making it mostly useful via actually subscribing to it from one of your email acccounts)
the CocoaDev wiki
Rogue Amoeba's Mike Ash has an unusually useful Q&A Fridays series on his blog
the advanced Mac programming book from Aaron Hillegass, Advanced Mac OS X Programming
although Apple's docs are pretty good now, in the bad old "description forthcoming" days, a lot of us learned how Mac OS X ticked from open-source code published by reputable software houses, like Omni's frameworks which you are free to embed as-is into your apps, or cherrypick code from
(Hmm, I don't usually post here, so I was prohibited from hyperlinking the above references... can I put them in as text? Uh, nope! Well, there's always google, I guess.)
Thankfully, Cocoa on the desktop and Cocoa Touch are very similar. I would recommend just downloading some beginner sample code from Apple's website. Since you already know Objective-C/Cocoa, you should be able to follow along pretty easily. If some parts are confusing, you can skim through Apple's guides.
Things that are the same:
Design Patterns (target/action, delegate, data source, first responder, etc.)
Objective-C
Interface Builder
Things that are different:
A control can have only one target and action. On the iPhone, you can have one target/action for a touch up inside, touch up outside, etc. On the Mac, there's only one.
NSWindowController for loading xibs (conceptually similar to UIViewController, though)
Edit: Overall, the main different the iPhone has more 'pre-built' UI classes (UINavigationController, UITabBarController, etc.) you can use in your app to make it look nice and pretty (and most importantly, consistent with Apple apps).
I started out with Mac OS development and went to iPhone development. You probably already know the core concepts about how the APIs work. The biggest problem I see developers who transition from iPhone to Mac is getting used all the subtle ways that Mac users expect their apps to work. Things like handling the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll your view (shame on Tweetie for not supporting this). Or handling multiple windows. Or multiple display sizes (and making sure not to position windows off screen).
For the technical programming questions, Apple's own documentation is the best place to start. For the nuances of designing for the Mac OS and doing things right, there isn't a book or web site that has all the answers, as far as I know. Mostly that comes from using apps that are Apple Design Award winners and imitating what they do.
In my app, I want to give the user the opportunity to add some comments to a listed item.
Rather than showing a "add comments" button, I want to show a little icon.
Being lazy, but also, using the visual language of a Mac user, I would like to use the the icon of the TextEdit application.
What would Apple think of this?
Obviously, I could design something myself, but that is another topic.
I would absolutely stay away from this. Since apple runs the approval process for iPhone apps they might reject your app for infringing on what would probably be copyright or trademarked work.
From a visual perspective, I do not think the TextEdit icon would be best for an "add comments" icon. It seems too general. I think your best bet would be to design something yourself or find a royalty free image online.
Apple rejected an update to my application because this icon (center), drawn by a designer for me and having no copyright whatsoever by Apple, depicts an iPhone.
I wouldn't push your luck. Stay far away from Apple's IP.
I believe this would be copyright infringement unless you had written permission from Apple. They have a copyright and trademark policy posted.
Yes!!! You CAN use their icons and they encourage it:
https://developer.apple.com/ios/human-interface-guidelines/graphics/system-icons/
System Icons
iOS provides lots of small icons—representing common tasks and types of content—for use in navigation bars, tab bars, toolbars, and Home screen quick actions. It’s a good idea to use these built-in icons as much as possible because they're familiar to people.
Provide alternative text labels for icons. Alternative text labels aren’t visible onscreen, but they let VoiceOver audibly describe what's onscreen, making navigation easier for people with visual impairments.