Selective graphic instance rendering

A system and method are provided for selectively rendering graphic instances in an image driver software application. The method comprises: accepting image data including a plurality of graphic instances from a software application (i.e., a printer driver accepting print data from a document processing application); applying a default first image rendering option to the image data; selecting a first graphic instance in the image data; applying a second image rendering option to the selected first graphic instance; and, generating an image job (i.e., a print job) incorporating the first and second image rendering options. A graphic instance can be a text object, business graphics object, photo object, bitmap, color, a range of colors, an identified region of a page, or vector. Some examples of rendering options that can be selected by the user include halftoning, color management, black generation, undercolor removal, filters, color adjustments, and segmentation-based rendering algorithms.