mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Survey on Deep Face Restoration: From Non-blind to Blind and Beyond

arXiv 2309.15490 ↗First posted 27 Sep 2023cs.CVcited by 18

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Abstract (arXiv)

Face restoration (FR) is a specialized field within image restoration that aims to recover low-quality (LQ) face images into high-quality (HQ) face images. Recent advances in deep learning technology have led to significant progress in FR methods. In this paper, we begin by examining the prevalent factors responsible for real-world LQ images and introduce degradation techniques used to synthesize LQ images. We also discuss notable benchmarks commonly utilized in the field. Next, we categorize FR methods based on different tasks and explain their evolution over time. Furthermore, we explore the various facial priors commonly utilized in the restoration process and discuss strategies to enhance their effectiveness. In the experimental section, we thoroughly evaluate the performance of state-of-the-art FR methods across various tasks using a unified benchmark. We analyze their performance from different perspectives. Finally, we discuss the challenges faced in the field of FR and propose potential directions for future advancements. The open-source repository corresponding to this work can be found at https:// github.com/ 24wenjie-li/ Awesome-Face-Restoration.

Key facts. Cited by 18 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 101 of its 222 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 27 Sep 2023.

Builds on

101 of 222 references.

References · 101

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  2. 2023Segment Anythingcited by 8,234
  3. 2018A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 6,013
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38 more
  1. 2017How far are we from solving the 2D & 3D Face Alignment problem? (and a dataset of 230,000 3D facial landmarks)cited by 525
  2. 2014Learning Face Representation from Scratchcited by 453
  3. 2017Deep Laplacian Pyramid Networks for Fast and Accurate Super-Resolutioncited by 453
  4. 2021SRDiff: Single Image Super-Resolution with Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 415
  5. 2019DeblurGAN-v2: Deblurring (Orders-of-Magnitude) Faster and Bettercited by 362
  6. 2020PULSE: Self-Supervised Photo Upsampling via Latent Space Exploration of Generative Modelscited by 358
  7. 2021Towards Real-World Blind Face Restoration with Generative Facial Priorcited by 349
  8. 2015WIDER FACE: A Face Detection Benchmarkcited by 298
  9. 2022Towards Robust Blind Face Restoration with Codebook Lookup Transformercited by 231
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  11. 2021GAN Prior Embedded Network for Blind Face Restoration in the Wildcited by 197
  12. 2018Joint 3D Face Reconstruction and Dense Alignment with Position Map Regression Networkcited by 195
  13. 2019Image Processing Using Multi-Code GAN Priorcited by 185
  14. 2017FSRNet: End-to-End Learning Face Super-Resolution with Facial Priorscited by 170
  15. 2020GLEAN: Generative Latent Bank for Large-Factor Image Super-Resolutioncited by 158
  16. 2022VQFR: Blind Face Restoration with Vector-Quantized Dictionary and Parallel Decodercited by 116
  17. 2020Blind Face Restoration via Deep Multi-scale Component Dictionariescited by 106
  18. 2020Progressive Semantic-Aware Style Transformation for Blind Face Restorationcited by 99
  19. 2022DifFace: Blind Face Restoration with Diffused Error Contractioncited by 97
  20. 2018To learn image super-resolution, use a GAN to learn how to do image degradation firstcited by 94
  21. 2018Learning Warped Guidance for Blind Face Restorationcited by 87
  22. 2022RestoreFormer: High-Quality Blind Face Restoration from Undegraded Key-Value Pairscited by 85
  23. 2018Deep Semantic Face Deblurringcited by 80
  24. 2023DR2: Diffusion-based Robust Degradation Remover for Blind Face Restorationcited by 79
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50 most cited of 101 All 101 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 1; 2024: 4; 2025: 9; 2026: 4.

18 papers.

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  1. 2024Efficient Face Super-Resolution via Wavelet-based Feature Enhancement Networkcited by 18
  2. 2024InstantRestore: Single-Step Personalized Face Restoration with Shared-Image Attentioncited by 13
  3. 2025Dual-domain Modulation Network for Lightweight Image Super-Resolutioncited by 8
  4. 2025Self-Supervised Selective-Guided Diffusion Model for Old-Photo Face Restorationcited by 8
  5. 2023FLAIR: A Conditional Diffusion Framework with Applications to Face Video Restorationcited by 5
  6. 2025Seeing Through the Rain: Resolving High-Frequency Conflicts in Deraining and Super-Resolution via Diffusion Guidancecited by 4
  7. 2025FourierSR: A Fourier Token-based Plugin for Efficient Image Super-Resolutioncited by 3
  8. 2025DynFaceRestore: Balancing Fidelity and Quality in Diffusion-Guided Blind Face Restoration with Dynamic Blur-Level Mapping and Guidancecited by 2
  9. 2025FADPNet: Frequency-Aware Dual-Path Network for Face Super-Resolutioncited by 1
  10. 2025RefSTAR: Blind Facial Image Restoration with Reference Selection, Transfer, and Reconstructioncited by 1
  11. 2025Transformer-Progressive Mamba Network for Lightweight Image Super-Resolutioncited by 1
  12. 2026PASDiff: Physics-Aware Semantic Guidance for Joint Real-World Low-Light Face Enhancement and Restorationcited by 1
6 more
  1. 2026GS-STVSR: Ultra-Efficient Continuous Spatio-Temporal Video Super-Resolution via 2D Gaussian Splattingcited by 1
  2. 2024Attention-Guided Multi-scale Interaction Network for Face Super-Resolutioncited by 0
  3. 2024Human Multi-View Synthesis from a Single-View Model:Transferred Body and Face Representationscited by 0
  4. 2025DeRainMamba: A Frequency-Aware State Space Model with Detail Enhancement for Image Derainingcited by 0
  5. 2026DVFace: Spatio-Temporal Dual-Prior Diffusion for Video Face Restorationcited by 0
  6. 2026WaveFreqAnchor: Wave-Structural Anchoring and Frequency Correction Diffusion for Training-Free Face Restorationcited by 0