Fragmentation is reduced in a memory of an image transfer device by coalescing segments of rasterized, compressed and distributed page strips into preallocated buffers, and then redistributing the strips back into the memory such that smaller holes in the memory are filled before larger holes. Alternatively, the rasterized and compressed page strips are stored directly into preallocated buffers before ever being distributed into memory. Then, when the buffers are filled, the strips are distributed into the memory such that smaller holes in the memory are filled before larger holes.