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 Photoshop for the Web, Second Edition is an Amazon parrot, also known as a blunt-tailed parrot. There are over 320 species of parrots, all of them easily distinguishable from other species of birds because of their large, hooked bills and their feet, on which the first and fourth toes are reversed, creating a pincer that aids in climbing trees. Most parrots also use their beaks to help in climbing.

There are 26 species and 52 subspecies of blunt-tailed parrots. These birds are mostly green, with bright coloring on their heads, wings, or elsewhere. The names of the subspecies tend to be descriptive: blue-fronted parrot, yellow-headed parrot, orange-winged amazon parrot. As their natural habitat is thickly grown forests, blunt-tailed parrots are excellent climbers, but awkward at flying and walking. In captivity, they often stop flying altogether.

Parrots were among the first domesticated animals. A helmsman of Alexander the Great was the first to bring live parrots to Europe. One reason for their popularity as pets is their ability to mimic human speech. Parrots have never been observed displaying this ability in the wild. They are naturally intelligent and gregarious, and it is believed that when they are kept in solitary cages they learn to mimic sounds as a way of entertaining themselves. Legend has it that Christopher Columbus saw a flock of parrots in the air and they prompted him to change his course, thus discovering America. Melanie Wang was the production editor and copyeditor for Photoshop for the Web, Second Edition. Colleen Gorman was the proofreader. Jeff Holcomb and Nicole Arigo provided quality control. Brenda Miller wrote the index.

Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Kathleen Wilson produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 3.32 using Adobe's Gill Sans Condensed and ITC Garamond fonts. Alicia Cech designed the color insert.

Alicia Cech designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. Mike Sierra implemented the design in FrameMaker 5.5. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Gill Sans. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Rhon Porter using Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5. This colophon was written by Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary.

Whenever possible, our books use RepKover, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. If the page count exceeds RepKover's limit, perfect binding is used.