How to Change the Font Style on EMUI 5.0 [No Root]

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One of the key features of Huawei’s Emotion UI (EMUI) is the ability to install custom themes onto the device.

Themers can package their work into .hwt files that can then be applied by EMUI’s theme manager application. Users can customize the lock screen style, wallpapers, icons, background colors, and finally the font.

However, some users who upgraded to EMUI 5.0, the latest version based on Android 7.0 Nougat, have found that the “Font Style” option is missing. Furthermore, it appears that these users cannot even change their fonts by applying custom themes that have packaged their own fonts. I can confirm that this is the case on the Huawei Mate 9, as have many others.

Fortunately, there is quite an easy fix available to re-enable switching the font style, and it doesn’t require root. If you have a Huawei device on EMUI 5.0 and cannot find the “Font Style” option under Settings –> Display or in the customization menu of the system theme manager, then all you need to do is send the following ADB shell command:

adb shell settings put system hw_hide_font_style false

(Note: if you can’t get ADB working, make sure you have the proper driver installed. Installing HiSuite will automatically fetch the right driver.)

Reboot, and you should now be able to edit fonts on your Huawei device running EMUI 5.0! I hope you find this tip useful. This doesn’t appear to be a problem on every device running EMUI 5.0 (I’ve seen mixed reports on the Mate 8, P9, and Honor 8 forums), but if you haven’t been able to edit your font hopefully this will work for you. It certainly did for me!

Looking for some new fonts to try out? Check out XDA Senior Member venom007 collection of fonts for EMUI! These can be installed as regular .hwt theme files on your system, so they do not require the use of a third party theme manager.