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. A crab spider is featured on the cover of WebMaster in a Nutshell. Like the crustaceans after which they are named, crab spiders walk sideways or backwards. They feed on bees and other pollenizing insects, often laying in wait for them by hiding on flowers. Some species of crab spider can, over a period of several days, change color from white to yellow and back again to blend into the flower on which they are sitting. The spider can grab its prey quickly with its forward-facing front legs. It then injects its victims with a fast-acting, highly poisonous venom, in this way protecting itself from the bee's sting.

Spiders are similar to, but not the same as, insects. They belong to the class Arachnida, named after Arachne, a maiden in Greek mythology. She defeated the goddess Athena in a weaving contest. In a fury of anger, Athena destroyed Arachne's weaving and beat her about the head. In utter disgrace, Arachne hanged herself. A regretful Athena changed Arachne into a spider so that she could weave forever.

While they are certainly not going to win any popularity contests, spiders' insect-eating habits are extremely helpful to humans. Every year, billions of spiders do away with a large number of disease-carrying and crop-destroying insects. If every spider ate just one a day for a year, those insects, piled in one spot, would weigh as much as 50 million people. Spiders are, by far, the most important predator of insects in the world. Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using a 19th-century en graving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced with Quark XPress 3.3 using the ITC Garamond font.

The inside layout was designed by Edie Freedman and Nancy Priest and im plemented in gtroff by Lenny Muellner. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. Figures were created by Chris Reilley in Macromedia Freehand 5.0 and Adobe Photoshop. This colophon was written by Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary, with help from Elaine and Michael Kalantarian.