Strategies are set forth herein for generating customized code used to implement an image processing pipeline. According to one exemplary implementation, the strategies involve: providing a master transformation which maps a plurality of kinds of image input information to a plurality of kinds of image output information using a plurality of kinds of intermediary processing operations; receiving requirements of the image processing pipeline; and assembling code modules from a library of code modules by selecting components in the master transformation which satisfy the received requirements, while omitting other components in the master transformation. The strategies are advantageous because they produce code that is more tailored to a specific image processing environment, which may result in code that executes in an efficient manner.