1. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, a method for rendering different types of graphical content, the method comprising: an act of receiving a definition of a template shape that represents a single primitive type used for rendering different types of graphical content; an act of receiving a request to render a batch of a plurality of graphical elements, including at least two graphical elements having different content types; and an act of rendering each of the graphical elements in the batch of graphical elements, for each graphical element the rendering including: an act of modifying an instance of the template shape according to one or more of transformation data, clip data, or width and height data corresponding to said graphical element; and an act of filling the modified instance of the template shape according to one or more of a shape of said graphical element or a brush representing filled content of said graphical element.