WELCOME TO Introduction to Computer Graphics, a free, on-line textbook covering the fundamentals of computer graphics and computer graphics programming. This book is meant for use as a textbook in a one-semester course that would typically be taken by undergraduate computer science majors, with at least two semesters of programming as a prerequisite. Version 1.4 adds a new chapter on WebGPU. See the preface for more information.

The web pages for this book include live, interactive demos that require a modern web browser such as recent versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. Chapter 9 examples require a browser that supports WebGPU. While the book is mainly designed for reading on a desktop computer, most of the demos should also work on recent mobile devices, using a touchscreen instead of a mouse.

Words in the book that are shown in this style or underlined like this refer to glossary entries; click the word to see a definition.

You can download this web site for use on your own computer. PDF versions of the textbook are also available. Links to the downloads can be found at the bottom of this page.

Short Table of Contents:

• Full Table of Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Two-Dimensional Graphics
• Chapter 3: OpenGL 1.1: Geometry
• Chapter 4: OpenGL 1.1: Light and Material
• Chapter 5: Three.js: A 3D Scene Graph API
• Chapter 6: Introduction to WebGL
• Chapter 7: 3D Graphics with WebGL
• Chapter 8: Beyond Basic 3D Graphics
• Chapter 9: Introduction to WebGPU
• Appendix A: Programming Languages
• Appendix B: Blender: A 3D Modeling Program
• Appendix C: Gimp and Inkscape for 2D Graphics
• Appendix D: Source Code for Sample Programs
• Appendix E: Glossary
• News