# RealCustom: Narrowing Real Text Word for Real-Time Open-Domain Text-to-Image Customization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.00483 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00483/

## Key facts

- Cited by 39 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 32 of its 38 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 32)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [Emerging Properties in Self-Supervised Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14294/) (2021)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08402/) (2022)
- [DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12242/) (2022)
- [Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01626/) (2022)
- [An Image is Worth One Word: Personalizing Text-to-Image Generation using Textual Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01618/) (2022)
- [Multi-Concept Customization of Text-to-Image Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04488/) (2022)
- [eDiff-I: Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with an Ensemble of Expert Denoisers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.01324/) (2022)
- [GLIGEN: Open-Set Grounded Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.07093/) (2023)
- [MasaCtrl: Tuning-Free Mutual Self-Attention Control for Consistent Image Synthesis and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08465/) (2023)
- [Attend-and-Excite: Attention-Based Semantic Guidance for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.13826/) (2023)
- [BLIP-Diffusion: Pre-trained Subject Representation for Controllable Text-to-Image Generation and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14720/) (2023)
- [ELITE: Encoding Visual Concepts into Textual Embeddings for Customized Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.13848/) (2023)
- [InstantBooth: Personalized Text-to-Image Generation without Test-Time Finetuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03411/) (2023)
- [P+: Extended Textual Conditioning in Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09522/) (2023)
- [Re-Imagen: Retrieval-Augmented Text-to-Image Generator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14491/) (2022)
- [DiffuMask: Synthesizing Images with Pixel-level Annotations for Semantic Segmentation Using Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11681/) (2023)
- [A Neural Space-Time Representation for Text-to-Image Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15391/) (2023)
- [Taming Encoder for Zero Fine-tuning Image Customization with Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02642/) (2023)
- [Cones 2: Customizable Image Synthesis with Multiple Subjects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.19327/) (2023)
- [Divide & Bind Your Attention for Improved Generative Semantic Nursing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10864/) (2023)
- [Diffusion Model is Secretly a Training-free Open Vocabulary Semantic Segmenter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.02773/) (2023)
- [Multiresolution Textual Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.17115/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 39)

- [Less-to-More Generalization: Unlocking More Controllability by In-Context Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.02160/) (2025)
- [DreamBench++: A Human-Aligned Benchmark for Personalized Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16855/) (2024)
- [Phantom: Subject-consistent video generation via cross-modal alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.11079/) (2025)
- [EasyControl: Adding Efficient and Flexible Control for Diffusion Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.07027/) (2025)
- [Controllable Generation with Text-to-Image Diffusion Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04279/) (2024)
- [DreamO: A Unified Framework for Image Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.16915/) (2025)
- [CreatiDesign: A Unified Multi-Conditional Diffusion Transformer for Creative Graphic Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19114/) (2025)
- [USO: Unified Style and Subject-Driven Generation via Disentangled and Reward Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.18966/) (2025)
- [Personalized Image Generation with Deep Generative Models: A Decade Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13081/) (2025)
- [InstantCharacter: Personalize Any Characters with a Scalable Diffusion Transformer Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12395/) (2025)
- [UMO: Scaling Multi-Identity Consistency for Image Customization via Matching Reward](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.06818/) (2025)
- [MMIG-Bench: Towards Comprehensive and Explainable Evaluation of Multi-Modal Image Generation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19415/) (2025)
- [RealCustom++: Representing Images as Real Textual Word for Real-Time Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.09744/) (2024)
- [RealGeneral: Unifying Visual Generation via Temporal In-Context Learning with Video Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10406/) (2025)
- [T-LoRA: Single Image Diffusion Model Customization Without Overfitting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.05964/) (2025)
- [CoRe: Context-Regularized Text Embedding Learning for Text-to-Image Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.15914/) (2024)
- [CustomContrast: A Multilevel Contrastive Perspective For Subject-Driven Text-to-Image Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.05606/) (2024)
- [Lance: Unified Multimodal Modeling by Multi-Task Synergy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.18678/) (2026)
- [MUSAR: Exploring Multi-Subject Customization from Single-Subject Dataset via Attention Routing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02823/) (2025)
- [AttnDreamBooth: Towards Text-Aligned Personalized Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.05000/) (2024)
- [DualReal: Adaptive Joint Training for Lossless Identity-Motion Fusion in Video Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02192/) (2025)
- [D2iT: Dynamic Diffusion Transformer for Accurate Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.09454/) (2025)
- [PSR: Scaling Multi-Subject Personalized Image Generation with Pairwise Subject-Consistency Rewards](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.01236/) (2025)
- [Multi-party Collaborative Attention Control for Image Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01428/) (2025)
- [DreamSteerer: Enhancing Source Image Conditioned Editability using Personalized Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11208/) (2024)
- [ArtCrafter: Text-Image Aligning Style Transfer via Embedding Reframing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.02064/) (2025)
- [PositionIC: Unified Position and Identity Consistency for Image Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.13861/) (2025)
- [MUSE: Multi-Subject Unified Synthesis via Explicit Layout Semantic Expansion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.14440/) (2025)
- [DreamVideo-Omni: Omni-Motion Controlled Multi-Subject Video Customization with Latent Identity Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.12257/) (2026)
- [FocusDPO: Dynamic Preference Optimization for Multi-Subject Personalized Image Generation via Adaptive Focus](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.01181/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Text-to-image customization, which aims to synthesize text-driven images for the given subjects, has recently revolutionized content creation. Existing works follow the pseudo-word paradigm, i.e., represent the given subjects as pseudo-words and then compose them with the given text. However, the inherent entangled influence scope of pseudo-words with the given text results in a dual-optimum paradox, i.e., the similarity of the given subjects and the controllability of the given text could not be optimal simultaneously. We present RealCustom that, for the first time, disentangles similarity from controllability by precisely limiting subject influence to relevant parts only, achieved by gradually narrowing real text word from its general connotation to the specific subject and using its cross-attention to distinguish relevance. Specifically, RealCustom introduces a novel "train-inference" decoupled framework: (1) during training, RealCustom learns general alignment between visual conditions to original textual conditions by a novel adaptive scoring module to adaptively modulate influence quantity; (2) during inference, a novel adaptive mask guidance strategy is proposed to iteratively update the influence scope and influence quantity of the given subjects to gradually narrow the generation of the real text word. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate the superior real-time customization ability of RealCustom in the open domain, achieving both unprecedented similarity of the given subjects and controllability of the given text for the first time. The project page is https://corleone-huang.github.io/realcustom/.