A RenderableImage is a common interface for rendering-independent images (a notion which subsumes resolution independence). That is, images which are described and have operations applied to them independent of any specific rendering of the image. For example, a RenderableImage can be rotated and cropped in resolution-independent terms. Then, it can be rendered for various specific contexts, such as a draft preview, a high-quality screen display, or a printer, each in an optimal fashion.
A RenderedImage is returned from a RenderableImage via the createRendering() method, which takes a RenderContext. The RenderContext specifies how the RenderedImage should be constructed. Note that it is not possible to extract pixels directly from a RenderableImage.
The createDefaultRendering() and createScaledRendering() methods are convenience methods that construct an appropriate RenderContext internally. All of the rendering methods may return a reference to a previously produced rendering.