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 JavaServer Faces is a Barbary ape ( Macaca sylvanus ). Despite its name, the Barbary ape is a monkey found in Algeria, Gibraltar, and Morocco, on the plains and in cedar and oak forests. Barbary apes are equally comfortable on the ground and in the trees. These tail-less macaques live in groups with multiple adults led by dominant females. Unlike most other monkeys, the males play an active role in caring for and playing with the young. Their fur is yellowish grey and brown with a pale underside; their diet consists of fruit, leaves, roots, and insects.

Barbary apes have played an interesting role in the political history of their environment: legend has it that Britain will never lose control of the Rock of Gibraltar while the Barbary apes remain in residence. For a time, the Barbary apes on Gibraltar were the responsiblity of the British Army; they even received medical care from the military hospital. Winston Churchill replenished the monkeys' population in 1942. The Barbary apes are Europe's only free-range monkeys, and their homes (Gibraltar, Morocco, and Algeria) have historically functioned as politically fraught transition areas between Europe and the Middle East. Apparently, the Barbary apes' pink faces have served to make them a resonant symbol of European imperialism.

Colleen Gorman was the production editor and copyeditor for JavaServer Faces. Sarah Sherman was the proofreader. Mary Anne Weeks Mayo, and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Mary Agner and Jamie Peppard provided production support. Johnna VanHoose Dinse wrote the index.

Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Library of Natural History , Volume V. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Julie Hawks 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 written by Colleen Gorman.

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