Methods are provided for rendering tabular data to a variety of media. A table is received having one or more cells where each cell may span one or more columns and one or more rows. The table is represented as a grid where the grid houses the cells. Moreover, a generic table is provided and represented by one or more formatting commands, which are operable to provide a rendering of the grid to an output media. Furthermore, a set of executable instructions operable to produce formatting commands to render a table is provided including decoupling cells from a table and storing the cells in a matrix. A dimension is associated with each cell in terms of each cell's relative position to other cells within the matrix. Further, formatting commands are outputted and operable to produce a rendition of the table to an output media. Also, a set of executable instructions operable to produce a rendition of a table is provided. Executable commands represent cells of a table, with the commands having parameters defining an outputted cell's dimensions on an output media. Moreover, the commands are executed in parallel to produce a rendition of the table on an output media.