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 Programming .NET Components is a land hermit crab (Coenobita clypeatus). Land hermit crabs are found in tropical areas of the Indoregion, the western Atlantic, and the western Caribbean. They live close to the shoreline and must have access to land and water.

The front half of a hermit crab is covered with a hard exoskeleton. The long abdomen has a softer exoskeleton that can adjust to fit into a spiraled shell. The large left claw is used for defense, for holding onto tree limbs, and for balance. The smaller right claw and the next pair of appendages are used for collecting and passing food and water to the mouth. Hermit crabs have stalked eyes with acute vision and two pairs of antennae. The longer pair of antennae is used for feeling, the shorter for smelling and tasting.

The land hermit crab doesn't have a hard shell of its own; it uses old empty shells to protect its soft body. As it grows in size, the hermit crab must find a larger shell. When danger threatens, it hides in the shell and closes the entrance with its hard claw.

Hermit crabs are omnivores and scavengers. They eat worms, plankton, and organic debris.

Although land-based, these crabs must return to the sea to breed. Both males and females partially emerge from their shells to mate. The female lays her hundreds of eggs inside the borrowed shell. These eggs are safe and damp in the shell but, when they hatch, they must be released in the sea. The young are in danger until they find a shell of their own. When they reach adulthood, the crabs migrate to begin their terrestrial life. Land hermit crabs live about 10 years. Mary Anne Weeks Mayo was the production editor and copyeditor for Programming .NET Components. Ann Schirmer proofread the book. Sarah Sherman and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Matt Hutchinson, Derek DiMatteo, Emily Quill, Jamie Peppard, and Genevieve d'Entremont provided production assistance. Ellen Troutman Zaig wrote the index.

Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. 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.

David Futato designed the interior layout with Bret Kerr. This book was converted by Joe Wizda 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.