Neil Robertson, Daniel P. Sanders, Paul Seymour, and Robin Thomas created this page to provide a short description of their new proof of the four color theorem and a four-coloring algorithm. The four color theorem began as the concept that a map can be shaded so that no connected areas have the same color. On this page the creators of this new proof provide a history of the proof, the need for a new proof, and a brief overview of the proof itself. The full text paper is available as a downloadable postscript file or online at the Electronic Research Announcements of the American Mathematical Society (link provided in reference 8 at the site). Programs and data used in the proof are also available under the section Pointers.