What to know
- iOS 17 lets you change the font weight of the digital clock on your iPhone’s lock screen.
- You can use the font-weight slider to make the clock’s font thinner or thicker than its original look.
- At any point, you can revert to the original font weight by double-tapping on the font inside the lock screen’s customization screen.
What is font-weight customization on iOS 17?
With iOS 17, Apple is taking Lock Screen customization on iPhone a step further with the ability to change font weights for the digital clock. This feature can be used across most of the clock fonts you apply on the Lock Screen and can be used to make the clock thicker or thinner than its original size.
In addition to letting you change the font-weight manually, iOS 17 also allows you to reset the font thickness with ease and we’ll explain all of that in the upcoming sections.
How to customize font weight on the lock screen on iOS 17
Before you can adjust the font weight on your iPhone’s lock screen, you need to make sure your device is running on iOS 17 or newer. To do that, go to Settings > General > Software Update and update your device to iOS 17, if available.
Note: At the time of writing, iOS 17 is only available as a developer preview, so we suggest you wait for a beta or public release to avoid running into issues or bugs in the software.
To customize the font weight on your iOS lock screen, unlock your phone using Face ID but do not go to the home screen. For this, simply press the Side button, show your face to the iPhone, and let the Lock Screen get unlocked. Now, long-press anywhere on the unlocked lock screen.
When the lock screen goes into edit mode, tap on Customize at the bottom.
In the Customize Wallpaper screen that appears, tap on the Lock Screen preview on the left.
You’ll now see your iPhone’s lock screen in edit mode. Here, tap on the digital clock at the top.
A Font & Color menu should appear on the screen. In this menu, choose a font you want to apply or leave it as it may be if you want to adjust the font size of your current selection. You can choose any of the fonts available to adjust its weight except for the Rails font at the end. That’s because the Rails font only comes in one size and is made of two thin lines.
Once you choose a desired font to change its weight, you should see a slider below the font row. This slider is what helps you adjust the font weight on your lock screen.
Note: The font-weight slider only applies to the digital clock on the iPhone; it doesn’t change the size of text anywhere else on the lock screen.
You can move the slider to the right to increase the font weight or to the left to decrease it. The thickness of the font of the digital clock will change in real-time to help you find the desired size.
Once you’ve made up your mind on the font weight, you can tap on the X icon to close the Font & Color menu.
To apply the modified font-weight, tap on Done at the top right corner.
The newly set font weight will be applied to your lock screen.
How to reset font weight for lock screen clock on iOS 17
If you had changed the lock screen clock’s font weight to a custom size, you can always revert to the original weight by going to the lock screen’s edit mode. To do that, unlock your phone using Face ID without going to the home screen. Now, long-press anywhere on the unlocked lock screen to edit it.
When the lock screen goes into edit mode, tap on Customize at the bottom.
In the Customize Wallpaper screen that appears, tap on the Lock Screen preview on the left.
You’ll now see your iPhone’s lock screen in edit mode. Here, tap on the digital clock at the top.
A Font & Color menu should appear on the screen. Here, double-tap on the current clock font to reset its size to the original setting.
If you wish to apply a different font with its original font-weight, you can double-tap on the desired font to reset it.
Once you’ve reset the font weight, tap on the X icon to close the Font & Color menu.
To apply the modified font-weight, tap on Done at the top right corner.
The original font-weight will be applied on your lock screen.
That’s all you need to know about changing the font weight for the clock on the lock screen on iOS 17.
