I needed to have Gill Sans Light font on the iPad. Gill Sans, in regular, bold and italic variants are native to the iPad/iPhone, but the Light is not.
I purchased the font, which to my surprise was in OTF format. The app appears to have used it without a problem. This page describes the very simple procedure of font 'installation' for your app. Other font formats that worked for me were TTF and TTC.
2 replies on “iOS and font support: OTF, TTF, TTC”
You cannot simply buy a font and embed it into an application. This would infringe on the IP. You need to license it from the owner. Monotype Imaging. This would be like Universal studtios going to iTunes to get a beatles song and include it in a movie soundtrack.
For mobile apps they are about $750 every two years per font.
I absolutely agree with your comment. Fonts are intellectual property and prior to embedding the font in an app one should make sure that they have the rights to do so. Alternatively, developers can use open source fonts.
With regards to Gill Sans Light, my client has a long-term contract with the font foundry that allowed me to use the font I purchased in the app.