A guide for customizing the system-wide font on the Wii U.


Custom system font shown in this screenshot is "Pop Happiness".
Download the custom system fonts here

Getting Started

Aroma custom firmware is required to use the mod. Install CFW if you haven’t already.

No system files in the MLC NAND are modified in the process. The custom system font is loaded into RAM only, so it's safe to install a custom system font without worrying about bricking the console.

What You Need:

Recommended OS: Windows 10 or 11, Linux

Merging the Fonts

A Wii U font will be merged into a custom system font so the icon glyphs are preserved.

There are 2 ways to merge the fonts: CLI & GUI

The CLI method involves in using a Python script that calls the FontForge program to merge the fonts automatically, while the GUI method involves in using FontForge itself to merge the fonts manually.

The CLI method is faster than the GUI method. If the CLI method does not work for you, go to the GUI method section.

Method 1: FontForge + Python script

The example custom system font used in this section is PopHappiness.ttf.

  1. Go to the Wii U System Font Replacer plugin repository.

  2. Download a Python script: merge-fonts.py

  3. Place those 3 files in a folder:

    • merge-fonts.py

    • Wii U font - nintendo_NTLG-DB_002.ttf

    • A custom font - PopHappiness.ttf (OTF also works)

  4. Launch the Terminal app by right-clicking on File Explorer’s empty space and clicking Open in Terminal.

  5. Input this command (pick one):

    Windows - PowerShell:

    & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\FontForgeBuilds\bin\fontforge.exe' merge-fonts.py PopHappiness.ttf nintendo_NTLG-DB_002.ttf PopHappiness_Merged.ttf

    Windows - Command Prompt (CMD):

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\FontForgeBuilds\bin\fontforge.exe" merge-fonts.py PopHappiness.ttf nintendo_NTLG-DB_002.ttf PopHappiness_Merged.ttf

    Linux:

    fontforge merge-fonts.py PopHappiness.ttf nintendo_NTLG-DB_002.ttf PopHappiness_Merged.ttf

    Those are single line commands - they are wrapped so the whole commands are displayed for easy copy without horizontally scrolling.

    The fonts have been merged as PopHappiness_Merged.ttf.

Continue to the Installing the Custom System Font to Wii U section.

Method 2: FontForge only

  1. Launch FontForge.

  2. Open the custom font file (TTF/OTF).

  3. Go to Element → Font Info... → General.

  4. Set the Em Size value to 1000 and click OK. The custom font size will be adjusted so it matches the Wii U font size. Skip if em size is already 1,000.

  5. Go to View → Goto, input U+E000 into the text box to jump to the Private Use Area block.

  6. If the custom font contains any non-Wii U glyphs in the PUA block, go to File → Execute Script, input this code into the text box:

    fontforge.activeFont().selection.select(("ranges", None), 0xE000, 0xE099)
fontforge.activeFont().clear()

    and click OK. This will clear out all the non-Wii U glyphs in this block.

  7. Go to Element → Merge Fonts... and select the Wii U font file.

  8. Click Yes when prompted to retain kerning info.

  9. Go to File → Generate Fonts....

  10. Pick TrueType in the combo-box, uncheck Validate Before Saving, then click Generate.

  11. On a File Explorer window, open the merged font file.

    • Make sure the outlines format is TrueType Outlines. If it’s PostScript Outlines, you must generate a font as TTF.

    • TrueType or OpenType on the window title bar doesn’t matter, as long as its outlines format is TrueType Outlines.

Installing the Custom System Font to Wii U

  1. Add the merged font file to SDCARD:/wiiu/fonts.

  2. Open the Plugin menu (L + D-Pad ↓ + Select).

  3. Go to System Font Replacer.

  4. Select the merged font file for Standard font.

  5. Disable Use custom fonts only for Wii U Menu to apply the font system-wide.

  6. Reboot the console.

The custom system font has been installed!

Installing the Custom System Font to Cemu

You can also install the custom system font to Cemu emulator.

The font files in /Cemu/resources/sharedFonts are replacement system fonts which are used if the real system fonts don't exist in a virtual MLC NAND.
Do not add the custom/real system fonts to this folder, as those added fonts will be overwritten with replacement ones after Cemu updates.
Instead, the custom/real system fonts should be added to a virtual MLC NAND.

  1. Rename the merged font file to CafeStd.ttf.

  2. Launch Cemu.

  3. Go to File → Open MLC folder.

  4. Navigate to /sys/title/0005001b/10042400/content. Create folders if those don’t exist.

  5. Add the CafeStd.ttf file here.

  6. Launch any of the system apps (if installed) and see how the custom system font looks.

The custom system font has been installed.