Oracle8 Design Tips By Dave Ensor, Ian Stevenson
September 1997
Pages: 132

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Colophon

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 insect featured on the cover of Oracle Design is a dragonfly of the family Libellulidae, or common skimmer. Dragonflies, along with damselflies, com prise the order Odonata. Dragonflies are predatory insects. Young dragonflies are aquatic insects. They are equipped with a unique "jet propulsion" ability. By drawing water in through their gills, located in the posterior of their abdomens, and quickly forcing it out again they are able to powerfully propel themselves across the water surface. This technique is used in emergencies when a quick getaway is called for.

Mature dragonflies are among nature's most impressive fliers. Because they achieve great speed and power relative to their size, their flying techniques have been studied extensively by aviation engineers. Dragonflies are able to fly as fast as 35 miles per hour, and to perform impressive mid-air acrobatics. Unlike most flying insects, dragonflies operate their front and rear wings in dependently. They twist their wings slightly on the downstroke, thus creating mini-whirlwinds that move over the wing surface faster than still air would.

Adult dragonflies catch and eat their prey while flying. They fly with their long, bristle-covered legs bent in front of them, forming something like a basket, which they use to scoop up other insects. Dragonflies are quite popular with humans both because of their beauty and grace and because their diet is largely made up of mosquitoes and flies. Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced with Quark XPress 3.3 using the ITC Garamond font. Whenever possible, our books use RepKoverTM, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. If the page count exceeds RepKover's limit, perfect binding is used. The inside layout was designed by Edie Freedman and Nancy Priest and implemented in FrameMaker by Mike Sierra. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. The illustrations that appear in the book were created in Macromedia Freehand by Chris Reilley and Robert Romano. This colophon was written by Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary.

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