A new efficient dynamic programming (DP) algorithm for 2D elastic matching is proposed. The present DP algorithm requires by far less complexity than previous DPbased elastic matching algorithms. This complexity reduction results from piecewise linearization of a 2D-2D mapping which specifies an elastic matching between two given images. Since this linearization can be guided by a priori knowledge related to image patterns to be matched, the present DP algorithm often provides sufficient matching as is shown by experimental results.