Systems and methods for rendering media

Methods and systems are provided for maintaining the aspect ratio of an image in the form of a graphic element or a photograph on a printed product in a theme collage. The aspect ratio of each image in the theme collage is maintained independent of any aspect ratio or resolution of the theme collage. Other methods provide for maintaining the resolution of a graphic element on a printed product in a theme collage using any desired combination of bitmap or vector based graphic data and alpha data when rendering the graphic element. An exemplary system may include one or more modules for determining the size of an image on a page while maintaining an aspect ratio of the image, displaying the image, receiving graphic data for the image, receiving alpha-transparency data for the image, and changing the image appearance according to a rendering parameter.