The font you pick has to render in every locale you ship. Latin is easy. CJK, Arabic, Hebrew, and dense Cyrillic break most "one font, all languages" promises. Here is the small set that actually works.
For UI inside screenshots: SF Pro
If your screenshot shows iOS UI, that UI uses SF Pro. Apple's reviewer notices when your "iOS UI" is rendered in a different font and flags it as misleading. Use the actual system font in real screenshots, not a substitute.
For marketing copy on top: Inter or SF Pro Display
Inter is the safe default for marketing text — heroes, captions, headlines that sit on top of the screenshot rather than inside the UI. Free, well-hinted, broad Latin and Cyrillic coverage. SF Pro Display is the same idea but more on-brand for Apple- first apps.
For CJK: Noto Sans CJK
One family, several variants:
- Noto Sans SC — Simplified Chinese (mainland).
- Noto Sans TC — Traditional Chinese (Taiwan).
- Noto Sans HK — Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong).
- Noto Sans JP — Japanese.
- Noto Sans KR — Korean.
Pick the right variant per locale. Mixing them is the most common mistake — a Japanese screenshot rendered in the SC variant gives subtly wrong glyphs that any native reader catches in a glance.
For Arabic and Hebrew
Noto Naskh Arabic for Arabic body text. Naskh is the standard style; avoid Kufi for screenshots unless you specifically want a stylized look. Hebrew has fewer pitfalls; Noto Sans Hebrew is fine.
For Cyrillic, Greek, Vietnamese
Most well-built Latin fonts already include extended scripts. Inter does. SF Pro does. Open Sans does. Check for "extended" or "pan-European" character coverage before assuming.
Licensing
All Noto fonts ship under the SIL Open Font License — free for commercial use, including embedding in app screenshots and binaries. Inter ships under the same OFL. SF Pro is licensed for use in apps and marketing for the Apple platform; check Apple's font terms before using it for non-iOS materials.