Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of T1: A Survival Guide is a caribou. Caribou, or reindeer, can be found in the arctic tundra, the mountain tundra, and the northern forests of North America, Russia, and Scandinavia. There are about 5 million caribou in the world, divided into three types: woodland, barren-ground, and Peary. A fourth type native to Canada, called the Queen Charlotte Island caribou, is extinct. One of the reasons the caribou is able to survive the northern climate is because its primary food source is lichen. The caribou's keen sense of smell enables it to find lichen buried under the snow.

Caribou are the only members of the deer family in which both sexes grow antlers. Adult bulls shed their antlers around November or December after mating, while cows and young caribou often carry their antlers through the entire winter. During growth, the antlers have a fuzzy covering, or velvet, which contains blood vessels that carry nutrients.

In addition to their antlers, caribou have lateral hooves that allow their feet to spread on snow or soft ground. The hooves also act as paddles, making the caribou an excellent swimmer. Linley Dolby was the production editor and copyeditor for T1: A Survival Guide. Rachel Wheeler proofread the book. Nicole Arigo and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Kimo Carter, Sarah Sherman, Mary Brady, and Sada Preisch provided production support. Lucie Haskins wrote the index.

Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is from the Illustrated Natural History: Mammalia. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

Melanie Wang designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. Neil Walls converted the files from Microsoft Word to FrameMaker 5.5.6 using tools created by Mike Sierra. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book; the code font is Constant Willison. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. This colophon was written by Linley Dolby.