(written from a Production point of view)
Dorling Kindersley, DK Publishing, or simply DK is a British publishing house founded in London in 1974. It is a leading European publisher of lavishly illustrated and oftentimes encyclopedia-like reference works and is as of 2013 a division of Penguin Random House. The works they publish do not only concern real word subjects such as history, the sciences or technology, but also works stemming from imaginary pop-culture franchises, which, apart from the Star Trek titles listed below, also includes works stemming from the Star Wars franchise of which the various Star Wars hardware cutaway books were the more notable ones.
DK is the parent company of Alpha Books, the publisher of the Idiot's Guide series as well as a number of video game and travel guides.