In order to use some fonts correctly some users need information about the conditions for which a font was designed. Desktop publishing basically eliminated the job of “typographer” (where this knowledge used to reside) – not just from the lexicon of modern hiring, but from the global workforce. Instead of typographers, desktop publishing users got foundries extending their support via email, website and telephone communications to users. Web publishing, where the communication must be between the user and the font, demands that this information, what’s good and bad use of a font, be easily accessible to the user – i.e. in the font itself.
Web fonts that use the EPAR table will contain this information and applications that are used to license, compose and display fonts on the web can make use of the contained “recommendations” to inform the shopper, the web designer and/or the web user of the best way to employ a particular font without resorting to email, web site information or phone calls to keep it all straight.
The EPAR table contains seventeen recommendation fields which cover a wide variety of ways in which a font might be used. These are optional, of course, so a font designer may choose not to make recommendations for some situations. Detailed explanations for each of the fields is laid out on the Recommendations Fields page.