Principles of Digital Image Synthesis

Cover of Volume 1 of Principles of Digital Image Synthesis by Andrew Glassner
Cover of Volume 2 of Principles of Digital Image Synthesis by Andrew Glassner

Principles of Digital Image Synthesis is a two-volume book on the fundamentals for using a computer to create realistic, synthetic images of 3D scenes. The book is constructed upon three basic fields of knowledge, which I believe form the basis for modern digital image synthesis: the human visual system, signal processing, and energy transport.

Although these fields are inter-related, I emphasize each of these topics in its own set of chapters. They all come together in the fourth part of the book where I discuss rendering systems in the large. The appendices provide reference data, historical notes, and background information on topics such as probability and linear algebra.

The book is intended to be useful in both the classroom and for independent study. It’s been used as the primary and secondary text in many university-level courses in computer graphicsI assume the reader has some background in calculus, but that’s about the limit of the prerequisites. The book includes some new research material that I have only published in a very reduced or schematic form; here it’s expanded quite a bit.

The book is about 1400 pages long (including hundreds of references and a 56-page index), and was published in two hardbound volumes. There are almost 90 color plates and over 800 figures. The book is dedicated to the inspiring spirit of Leonardo da Vinci, and his quotes open both volumes, as well as all major sections.

The book was expensive to produce and buy, so the publisher let it go out of print a few years ago. But people still wanted it, and they were snapping up older copies online. In a remarkable act of generosity, two people stepped up to make things better. First, Eric Haines encouraged me to convince the publisher to revert the rights back to me, so that I could put a PDF of the book online for free. Happily, the publisher ultimately agreed. Even better, Iliyan Georgiev volunteered to take all my existing errata and update the PDF to include them!

The result is that you can now download, for free, both volumes of the entire book, with corrections to every error I’m aware of. Eric Haines is generously hosting this PDF on his Real Time Rendering website – just click here.

Table of Contents

  • 1 The Human Visual System
  • 2 Color Spaces
  • 3 Displays
  • 4 Signals and Systems
  • 5 Fourier Transforms
  • 6 Wavelents
  • 7 Monte Carlo Integration
  • 8 Uniform Sampling and Reconstruction
  • 9 Non-Uniform Sampling and Reconstruction
  • 10 Survey of Sampling and Reconstruction Techniques
  • 11 Light
  • 12 Energy Transport
  • 13 Radiometry
  • 14 Materials
  • 15 Shading
  • 16 Integral Equations
  • 17 The Radiance Equation
  • 18 Radiosity
  • 19 Ray Tracing
  • 20 Rendering and Images
  • 21 The Future
  • Appendix A: Linear Algebra
  • Appendix B: Probability
  • Appendix C: Historical Notes
  • Appendix D: Analytic Form Factors
  • Appendix E: Constants and Units
  • Appendix F: Luminaire Standards
  • Appendix D: Reference Data
  • Index

If you’re really keen to have a hardbound copy of the book, you can sometimes find copies in used books stores in real life or online. If you do have the hardcopy, check out the online version which lists (and implements) the errata, so you don’t have to stumble over typos.