Colophon

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Learning C# 2005 , Second Edition is a goldfish. Goldfish are freshwater fish popular in aquariums and ponds. Though they are native to China, goldfish are one of the most common household pets all over the world. They were first domesticated centuries ago when it was discovered that carp, which are usually olive-colored, can have color mutations causing some of their scales to be red or gold. These mutated fish were bred to create many different varieties of goldfish, including the oranda, ryukin, lionhead, pearlscale, telescoped eye, and bubble eye types.

Most commercial goldfish are scaled and have metallic red, gold, white, silver, or black sheens. But the more rare "scaleless" fish have transparent scales, making them appear bright red, blue, purple, or calico- patterned . Though the wild carp from which goldfish are bred can measure up to 16 inches in length, most commercial goldfish are between 1 and 4 inches long.

The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed.