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 Practical mod_perl is a Thoroughbred horse. The Thoroughbred, also called the English running horse, originated in England from crossbreeding an Arabian horse and a Turkish horse to create the fastest racing horse in the world. One of the swiftest of all creatures and the fastest of horses, the Thoroughbred can maintain speeds of up to 45 miles per hour for more than a mile. This makes the Thoroughbred best-suited for racing, as well as for polo.

Thoroughbreds average 16 hands and 1,100 pounds in size. They have a leggy appearance, complemented by a long, light neck. Their heads are proportionate to their bodies, and their wide foreheads are often adorned with white markings. In addition to their strong physical characteristics, Thoroughbreds' personalities are noted for their strength, courage, determination, and will. However, due to their breeding, they also tend to be racy and nervous.

The integrity of the breed is closely maintained through stud documentation. Since 1977, every foal registered in the American Stud Book must be blood-typed to prove its origins.

Linley Dolby was the production editor, and Rachel Wheeler was the copyeditor for Practical mod_perl. Sada Preisch and Jane Ellin proofread the book, and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Tom Dinse wrote the index. Derek Di Matteo, Matt Hutchinson, and Jamie Peppard provided production assistance.

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.

Bret Kerr designed the interior layout, based on a series design by David Futato. This book was converted by Linda Mui and Andrew Savikas 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. This colophon was written by Linley Dolby.

The online edition of this book was created by the Safari production group (John Chodacki, Becki Maisch, and Madeleine Newell) using a set of Frame-to-XML conversion and cleanup tools written and maintained by Erik Ray, Benn Salter, John Chodacki, and Jeff Liggett.