At the bottom of each page is a footer (using smaller point sizes) that also contains links to main sections of the website. The footer area is not provided as the navigation method for the website even though it can be used for that purpose if you so choose. The main method of navigation is to click on menus or links displayed as part of the regular text. To go back, you can always click on the Back arrow in your browser or the title of the page (on our site).
The size of text that you see depends on the size of your monitor and the resolution that the monitor is set at. If the resolution is set too high for the size of the monitor, text may appear harder to read.
Our web pages are designed using the "default" size of text, the same as over 90% of web pages worldwide. So if the print of our website looks too small to you, there are four reasons why. A discussion of the four reasons are listed in the order you should use to check your system out. The first reason shown may be all you need to change.
The screen resolution you use depends on the size of monitor and the ability of your graphics card. If you have a large monitor you can get away with a higher resolution. If it makes text too small, you can change to a lower resolution. If it makes portions of the web page wrap, you may need to change to a higher resolution. To effectively use a larger resolution, you may need to upgrade to a larger monitor (larger display area). New larger flat-screen monitors are becoming cheaper and take up less room. The most common size flat-screen monitor is 22 inches or larger.
The most common and suggested screen resolution settings for different sized monitors are as follows:
This is most likely to be the case only if you are using a Macintosh or a Unix system. Even if you do not have the same typeface installed, browsers will usually do a substitution with a similar typeface. It is not possible to guarantee that we use a typeface that every system will have installed. To increase the chances that we use a typeface that you have, we use five common typefaces.
We specify Arial, Geneva, Helvetica, Tahoma, and Verdana typefaces, not necessarily in that order. Your browser will use the first one that you have installed, or it will choose the default typeface that you have set for your browser if you have not installed any of the typefaces listed. We have no control over the default typeface you have set for your browser.
We use Arial, Geneva, Helvetica, Tahoma, and Verdana in an attempt to cover as many systems as possible.
Arial, Tahoma, and Verdana are common typefaces in the Windows world. Geneva is also common in the Windows world but even more so in the Macintosh world. Helvetica is common on Unix systems and later versions of the Macintosh OS. If you do not have one of these typefaces installed, you might want to install them; other websites use them heavily and it could improve your view of the other websites as well.
Regardless of the sizes of type used in our website, you may be able to use your own settings and override the values in your browser.
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Browsers are kept up to date by their developers, occasionally having a new release within a few months of the last release. The latest browsers often correct bugs and enhance viewing. The most popular browsers are Mozilla Foundation's Firefox, Goggle Chrome, Microsoft's Edge/Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera. The usage statistics are:
| Stats Date |
Firefox |
Google Chrome |
Internet Explorer/Edge |
Safari |
Opera |
| February 2021 |
6.6% |
80.6% |
5.4% |
3.9% |
2.3% |
| January 2021 |
6.7% |
80.3% |
5.3% |
3.8% |
2.3% |
| ... |
... |
... |
... |
... |
... |
| December 2019 |
9.0% |
81.8% |
2.9% |
3.3% |
1.4% |
| December 2018 |
10.1% |
79.6% |
3.8% |
3.4% |
1.7% |
| August 2017 |
13.1% |
76.9% |
4.3% |
3.0% |
1.2% |
| January 2012 |
37.1% |
35.3% |
20.1% |
4.3% |
2.4% |
| April 2011 |
42.9% |
25.6% |
24.3% |
4.1% |
2.6% |
| ... |
... |
... |
... |
... |
... |
| 2010 |
46.4% |
16.7% |
30.4% |
3.4% |
2.3% |
| 2009 |
47.9% |
6.5% |
39.4% |
3.3% |
2.1% |
| ... |
... |
... |
... |
... |
... |
| 2003 |
5.7% (Mozilla) |
... |
87.2% |
2.7% |
1.7% |
| 2002 |
3.5% (Mozilla) |
... |
84.5% |
7.3% |
... |
Reference: w3c Schools
Early Browsers
At the very beginning of the Internet, there were only a couple browsers available. Netscape quickly became the most common browser. Netscape was not free like most browsers are today. Early on, Microsoft failed to recognize the value of the Internet, so when they decided to develop their own browser, they had to decide at what price should they charge in order to win customers away from choosing Netscape. Microsoft had already developed a record of aggressively competing with small companies to the point of effectively destroying the companies. It wasn't surprising that Microsoft decided to give their browser away for free. Of course, that did destroy Netscape's business model. Their alternative was to turn to advertising support for the browser, but even that road is a rough one to travel.
It was around this same time that an open-source project for a web browser was started. Its name was Mozilla. It was community-supported. Eventually, Netscape got bought by AOL, the top Internet Service Provider at the time. AOL did not have great luck with Netscape as it was not a great money maker. In fact, it was more likely a loss-leader, just to remain in the Internet Service Provider business. Eventually, AOL decided to donate the code to the Mozilla Foundation. The Mozilla Foundation had already started work on a new browser they were calling Firefox. Mozilla took the Netscape code and along with their own to improve Firefox.
Firefox Versions 1 and 2 were pretty successful, but the top developer had realized it would have been better if the browser had a better foundation to grow on. So, that top developer closed the door for other developer contributions, locked himself away, and created what became version 3. At the time, the other Firefox developers felt left out, and there were a lot of heated discussions on their development boards. Regardless, Firefox 3 was accepted because it was a better development model. Since that time, other code developers have been able to contribute code in order to refine, correct, and evolve with newer needs.
One goal Firefox has always supported was to be code compliant to the Web Consortium Standards. All along this same timeline, Microsoft had implemented their own features that their browser could handle, but other browsers could not. Microsoft intended on securing the market share of the naive customer. For a while, it worked to some degree but the bullying irritated web developers. With each new release of Internet Explorer, Microsoft would claim "more standards compliant" but due to leaving some of the non-standard features in, all it did was hurt the whole of the Internet. Today, Microsoft no longer has the majority of users, and no one is crying about it. The only good thing for the Internet users, even though it effectively destroyed Netscape, was that browsers are pretty much all free. Whenever a company has developed a browser to sell, they have failed.
Mozilla Firefox
Currently, Firefox is at the forefront when it comes to standards compliance. It is the second most popular browser in use today. There are other browsers, in fact, many of them, however, most of those many other browsers are based on the rendering engines of either Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Chrome's Webkit. Firefox is based on the Gecko rendering engine, and Internet Explorer is based on the Trident rendering engine. Microsoft's Edge browser is based on a new rendering engine named Edge-HTML. Most other non-Gecko or Trident-based browsers work pretty well, but most do not have the range of support for the standards as Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer/Edge.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer was once the top dog browser having 85.8% of the market share back in 2002. Due to partial implementation of standards, and having bugs in what was iplemented, plus the stiff competition of Firefox and Chrome has caused Internet Explorer to fall out of favor with the majority.
Regardless of your feeling for Microsoft, Internet Explorer works fair for most users and for most websites. It is down from the most common browser to the third most common in use today. Internet Explorer version 9 is available for Windows Vista and 7, and MS Edge is for Windows 10 and beyond. Internet Explorer Version 8 only works for later versions of the operating system, i.e., XP or later. Older operating systems will still require version 6.x or earlier. Internet Explorer was the first browser that limited its market in this manner but other browsers (and applications) support the XP and later operating systems on the Windows side of things.
Starting with the I.E. 7.x browser, several new features were implemented and it corrected some bugs that existed in version 6.x. The later browsers have a different look, meaning a cleaner interface and more viewing area for the webpage you are viewing. RSS Feeds have been accessible directly from the browser since version 7. Also common is a customized search field you set to use your favorite search engine. New security features help point out known "phishing" sites. The new browsers have "tabbed" browsing, and if you didn't know tabbed browsing existed before, you would think Microsoft invented it (a comical point since there was once a Microsoft statement that Internet Explorer could not have tabbed browsing due to its basic design, while at the same time, several other browsers based on the IE rendering engine had already implemented tabbed browsing). They solved the user interface problem without great difficulty; finally, Microsoft has chimed in with a multi-tabbed design.
Older versions of the IE browser were not as standards compliant as the newer versions. Starting at version 6.x, Internet Explorer settled down design-wise. The most common updates for Internet Explorer 6.x were for critical security patches; other than that, it leveled out. Internet Explorer 6.x supported more features of the HTML standard, the CSS standards, and just about any other standard in use on the web.
Microsoft developed MS Edge as the next evolution of their browser. Microsoft claims it is more secure and offers a better web experience.
Other Browsers
The browsers built on the Internet Explorer basic components (Trident-based) work almost the same as Internet Explorer. They generally have other features not available in Internet Explorer. If you wish to try out some of these IE based browsers, check out Avant Browser, and MaxThon.
The browsers built on the Firefox basic components (Gecko based) work almost the same as Firefox. They generally have other features not available in Firefox. If you wish to try out some of these Firefox based browsers, check out K-Meleon, and Sea Monkey.
The other most popular browsers are Opera, Safari, and Chrome. So far, Chrome wins for speed. It is an open-source project developed by Google but borrows some technology from other open-source projects such as Firefox. Overall, it is an impressive browser.
Opera used its own rendering engine named Presto, before switching to Blink, an offshoot of WebKit. Other parts of their browser did borrow from some Firefox code for versions around 8 or 9. Starting with version 10, Opera's Presto version 2.2 rendering engine was updated to be faster. In 2013, Opera developers switched to Blink for rendering.
Safari Browser started out being a browser for the Macintosh but later developed a version that works on the Windows operating system. Their claim was that it was the fastest available, even showing a comparison chart on their website, however, it seems to have conveniently left out the Google Chrome browser. Now, Safari is no longer pushing their browser for the PC side, sticking with the Mac platform instead.
Downloads
This website renders properly in the following browsers. Website browsers are sorted based on the rendering engine the browser is built around. You may click on the icon text to visit their website.
Mac and the Mac logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Firefox changed the menu items starting with version 3.0. Prior to 3.0, the View Menu had a Text Size choice, which then allowed the user to Increase, Decrease, or set the text size to Normal. Starting with version 3.0, the View menu item changed to Zoom, which then allowed the user to Zoom in, Zoom Out, or Reset. The main difference is that versions prior to 3.0, the menu choices affected text but not the layout of the page, which is what you wanted in most cases to read the text easier. Starting with version 3.0, the View | Zoom menu choice refers to the entire page. To be backwards compatible, versions 3.0 added a "Zoom 
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