Java™ Media APIs: Cross-Platform Imaging, Media, and Visualization

Rendering Independence: The Renderable and Rendered Imaging Layers

Another important advancement included in the Java 2D API, and one that forms the heart of the JAI, is the ability to do rendering independent imaging operations. The use of rendering independent operations can be quite powerful and is accomplished through classes that implement the Renderable interface. The basic advantage of rendering independence is that image operations can be accomplished without processing the pixel data. This enables a number of important optimizations, not the least of which is a greatly reduced need to render, but also goes a long way toward ensuring optimal quality over all devices. Most of the advanced capabilities that are such an integral part of ...