UMM exists to solve the problem of how to serve XHTML+MathML to be compatible with all browsers, while still serving content in the most useful form possible. Most browsers do not support MathML, and often completely fail to render a naively served XHTML+MathML page. For example, take a look at what happens in Internet Explorer and Opera if you try to open an XHTML+MathML document sent with the application/xhtml+xml MIME type:
UMM is a PHP script that will detect how to best serve an XHTML+MathML page to a site visitor, and will automatically perform the necessary transformations to ensure that the page displays properly. This includes sending the correct MIME type, and even rendering the MathML into an image if necessary.
Since most internet users will have to view equations using pre-rendered images, UMM has a variety of features to make the pages served using images nearly as high-quality as natively rendered XHTML+MathML. For example, in browers which fully support the vertical-align property, UMM can align inline math images to have the same baseline as the surrounding text. UMM can also attempt to match the style of a pre-rendered equation to the surrounding text, using a CSS engine more complete than some common browsers. Demonstrated below are a pair of XHTML+MathML documents which have been transformed to use HTML, with images for the equations.
See UMM in action, serving pages for your browser, by visiting our example pages.