Recommended, but not required:
Fundamentals of Computer Graphics - Peter Shirley
A K Peters Ltd, ISBN: 1568811241, 1st edition (July 2002)
The primary goal of 6.837 is to introduce many important data structures and algorithms that are useful for presenting data visually on a computer. 6.837 does not cover the use of graphics design applications such as Photoshop and AutoCAD. In short, 6.837 is a programming class. The goal of this class is to provide you with sufficient background to write computer graphics applications.
Everyone taking 6.837 should have taken courses in, or have reasonable exposure to, basic calculus, linear algebra (e.g. 18.06), and algorithms (e.g. 6.046). Programming assignments will be done in C++, so familiarity with this or syntactically similar programming languages (Java, or Pascal) will be an asset. Review sessions for C++ and linear algebra are planned.