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 Network Printing is a steer. The steer is a gelded male cow, a domesticated farm animal of the bovine species that is an important part of the agricultural industry. The term "steer" refers to the young male cow; after it is a few years old, it is called an ox, which is frequently used as a draft animal.

The steer plays a central role in rodeos, which are an exhibition of riding and roping contests. Steer wrestling, also known as "bulldogging," involves a mounted cowboy chasing down a steer, then diving from the horse's back and wrestling the steer to the ground. In a steer roping contest, the cowboy lassos the steer by the horns, bringing it to the ground. Then the cowboy dismounts and ties the steer's feet as quickly as possible. The contests are judged by speed, and the fastest cowboy is the winner. Colleen Gorman was the production editor and proofreader, and Catherine Morris was the copyeditor for Network Printing. Mary Sheehan and Nancy Kotary provided quality control. Rachel Wheeler provided production support. Ellen Troutman-Zaig wrote the index.

Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

Alicia Cech and David Futato designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. Mike Sierra implemented the design in FrameMaker 5.5.6. 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 using Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5. This colophon was written by Colleen Gorman.