Methods for optimizing the processing of function based object operations in interpreted page description languages are presented. In some embodiments, the method comprises parsing the PDL document to identify a function based operator in the PDL document; generating program code in a programming language, wherein the program code is functionally equivalent to the function based operator; compiling the program code to generate a shared object and dynamically linking the software that performs the document processing functions to the entry point of the shared object; and invoking the shared object associated with the function based operator when the function based operator is processed.