A processor for approximating a reshaping function using a multi-segment polynomial receives an input reshaping function. Given a number of target segments (N) and an initial maximum fitting error, in a first pass, it applies a first smoothing filter to the input reshaping function to generate a first smoothed reshaping function. Next, it generates a first multi-segment polynomial approximation of the input reshaping function based on one or more multi-segment polynomial approximation algorithms, the smoothed reshaping function, the number of target segments, and the initial maximum fitting error. The same process may be repeated in two or more similar passes that may include in each pass: reconstructing the reshaping function from the polynomial approximation of the previous pass, smoothing and segmenting the reconstructed reshaping function, and generating an updated multi-segment polynomial approximation according to an updated maximum fitting error.