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 animals on the cover of Eclipse Cookbook are pole shrimp (Macrobrachium rosenbergii). These crustaceans can be found in freshwater streams and waterholes as well as in the brackish water and estuaries of the Indo-Pacific region.

Shrimp are similar to crayfish, but their arms are long with fine claws. As with most arthropods, a pole shrimp has an exoskeleton; instead of muscles connected over a bony internal skeleton, its muscles attach underneath, on the rigid, calcium-impregnated carapace. Six long feelers covered with chemoreceptor cells allow the shrimp to detect the smell of food in the water. The pole shrimp continually uses these feelers to scrub itself, removing pieces of dirt that may affect its function.

Like all crustaceans, pole shrimp grow through molting. Before molting, they grow a new shell beneath their old one; this new carapace is soft and somewhat folded, something like an empty balloon. The new carapace inflates with water, splitting the old one at the weakened points. The old carapace splits in half, and the entire head section slides out of the old shell. A sharp flick of the tail leaves the old exoskeleton lying at the bottom of the sea. Mary Anne Weeks Mayo was the production editor and proofreader, and Audrey Doyle was the copyeditor for Eclipse Cookbook. Phil Dangler and Emily Quill provided quality control. Jamie Peppard and Mary Agner provided production assistance. Tom Dinse wrote the index.

Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from Cuvier's Animals. Emma produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

Melanie Wang designed the interior layout, based on a series design by David Futato. This book was converted by Julie Hawks to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was compiled by Mary Anne Weeks Mayo.