This primer provides an introduction to OpenGL version 1.2 that should prove useful to students on a graphics course that requires programming using OpenGL. In this book, Edward Angel presents the commands, provides examples and discusses common beginners" pitfalls when talking about: two-dimensional programs; interaction and animation; three-dimensional programs; transformations; lights and materials; bits and pixels; texture mapping; curves and surfaces; as well as some advanced features. It presents a non-mathematical treatment of OpenGL, with an approach that gets students using OpenGL quickly. This book features a top-down, programming-oriented approach to computer graphics. Capitalizing upon this top-down and hands-on approach, the text quickly gets students writing 3D graphics programs. Angel uses OpenGL, a graphics library supported by most workstations, and the C programming language (which, like OpenGL, is not object-oriented), making students aware of what is happening at the lowest levels of computer-graphics programming. Each chapter is built around an application, with key principles and techniques explained as needed and in increasing detail, teaching students by example and by practice. While emphasizing applications programming, the book covers all topics required for a fundamental course in computer graphics, such as light-material interactions, shading, modelling, curves and surfaces, antialiasing, texture mapping and compositing, as well as hardware issues. The top-down approach taken in this book enables students of computer science and engineering to generate complex interactive applications by the end of their first course, and should provide them with a solid background for future work or study in computer graphics.