SliderSpace: Decomposing the Visual Capabilities of Diffusion Models
On the map: Diffusion models → Image generation, text-to-image and editing
Abstract (arXiv)
We present SliderSpace, a framework for automatically decomposing the visual capabilities of diffusion models into controllable and human-understandable directions. Unlike existing control methods that require a user to specify attributes for each edit direction individually, SliderSpace discovers multiple interpretable and diverse directions simultaneously from a single text prompt. Each direction is trained as a low-rank adaptor, enabling compositional control and the discovery of surprising possibilities in the model's latent space. Through extensive experiments on state-of-the-art diffusion models, we demonstrate SliderSpace's effectiveness across three applications: concept decomposition, artistic style exploration, and diversity enhancement. Our quantitative evaluation shows that SliderSpace-discovered directions decompose the visual structure of model's knowledge effectively, offering insights into the latent capabilities encoded within diffusion models. User studies further validate that our method produces more diverse and useful variations compared to baselines. Our code, data and trained weights are available at https://sliderspace.baulab.info
Key facts. Cited by 24 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 40 of its 55 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 3 Feb 2025.
Builds on
40 of 55 references.
Closest ancestors · 11
Same direction, newest first
- 2024Training-free Regional Prompting for Diffusion Transformers4 Nov
- 2024TurboEdit: Instant text-based image editing14 Aug
- 2024TurboEdit: Text-Based Image Editing Using Few-Step Diffusion Models1 Aug
- 2023Inversion-Free Image Editing with Natural Language7 Dec
- 2023LEDITS++: Limitless Image Editing using Text-to-Image Models28 Nov
- 2023Concept Sliders: LoRA Adaptors for Precise Control in Diffusion Models20 Nov
- 2023IP-Adapter: Text Compatible Image Prompt Adapter for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models13 Aug
- 2023Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models10 Feb
- 2022Multi-Concept Customization of Text-to-Image Diffusion8 Dec
- 2022InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructions17 Nov
- 2022DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generation25 Aug
Other references · 29
- 2021Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervisioncited by 33,456
- 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,694
- 2021LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Modelscited by 14,084
- 2021Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesiscited by 8,185
- 2018A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,986
- 2023SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,290
- 2024Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,094
- 2015FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clusteringcited by 2,833
- 2018Large Scale GAN Training for High Fidelity Natural Image Synthesiscited by 2,609
- 2022Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Controlcited by 2,409
- 2021CLIPScore: A Reference-free Evaluation Metric for Image Captioningcited by 2,388
- 2015Unsupervised Representation Learning with Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 2,048
17 more
- 2021StyleCLIP: Text-Driven Manipulation of StyleGAN Imagerycited by 990
- 2023Adversarial Diffusion Distillationcited by 741
- 2019Image2StyleGAN: How to Embed Images Into the StyleGAN Latent Space?cited by 675
- 2024Improved Distribution Matching Distillation for Fast Image Synthesiscited by 648
- 2020GANSpace: Discovering Interpretable GAN Controlscited by 612
- 2023Zero-shot Image-to-Image Translationcited by 503
- 2023Scaling up GANs for Text-to-Image Synthesiscited by 492
- 2020InterFaceGAN: Interpreting the Disentangled Face Representation Learned by GANscited by 393
- 2020StyleFlow: Attribute-conditioned Exploration of StyleGAN-Generated Images using Conditional Continuous Normalizing Flowscited by 348
- 2023InstantBooth: Personalized Text-to-Image Generation without Test-Time Finetuningcited by 343
- 2020StyleSpace Analysis: Disentangled Controls for StyleGAN Image Generationcited by 331
- 2023PhotoMaker: Customizing Realistic Human Photos via Stacked ID Embeddingcited by 324
- 2023DreamSim: Learning New Dimensions of Human Visual Similarity using Synthetic Datacited by 322
- 2023Style Aligned Image Generation via Shared Attentioncited by 214
- 2023NoiseCLR: A Contrastive Learning Approach for Unsupervised Discovery of Interpretable Directions in Diffusion Modelscited by 46
- 2023Unsupervised Compositional Concepts Discovery with Text-to-Image Generative Modelscited by 36
- 2024Interpreting the Weight Space of Customized Diffusion Modelscited by 35
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 8; 2026: 16.
24 papers.
Sort:
By area:
- 2025Distilling Diversity and Control in Diffusion Modelscited by 21
- 2025Kontinuous Kontext: Continuous Strength Control for Instruction-based Image Editingcited by 15
- 2025SliderEdit: Continuous Image Editing with Fine-Grained Instruction Controlcited by 12
- 2025It's Never Too Late: Noise Optimization for Collapse Recovery in Trained Diffusion Modelscited by 9
- 2025SAEdit: Token-level control for continuous image editing via Sparse AutoEncodercited by 8
- 2025A Course Correction in Steerability Evaluation: Revealing Miscalibration and Side Effects in LLMscited by 7
- 2026Continuous Control of Editing Models via Adaptive-Origin Guidancecited by 5
- 2026SLICE: Semantic Latent Injection via Compartmentalized Embedding for Image Watermarkingcited by 5
- 2026ELROND: Exploring and decomposing intrinsic capabilities of diffusion modelscited by 2
- 2025Coffee: Controllable Diffusion Fine-tuningcited by 1
- 2026STRIDE: Training-Free Diversity Guidance via PCA-Directed Feature Perturbation in Single-Step Diffusion Modelscited by 1
- 2026Explore or Converge? Stage-Guided Per-Step Optimization for Diffusion Modelscited by 1
12 more
- 2025CREward: A Type-Specific Creativity Reward Modelcited by 0
- 2026Rethinking Global Text Conditioning in Diffusion Transformerscited by 0
- 2026Style-Aware Gloss Control for Generative Non-Photorealistic Renderingcited by 0
- 2026PixelSmile: Toward Fine-Grained Facial Expression Editingcited by 0
- 2026TokenDial: Continuous Attribute Control for Text-to-Video Generation in Visual Dial Spacecited by 0
- 2026Show Me Examples: Inferring Visual Concepts from Image Setscited by 0
- 2026Latent-Identity Tuning in Text-to-Image Personalization Modelscited by 0
- 2026Contrastive-Augmented Flow Matching for Style-Content Disentanglementcited by 0
- 2026RankT2I: A Submodular Framework for Discovering Interpretable and Diverse Semantics in Text-to-Image Modelscited by 0
- 2026SemanticSlider3D: Training-Free Continuous Semantic Editing for 3D Objectscited by 0
- 2026Probing Perceptual Priors of MLLMs via Gibbs Sampling with Interpretable Generative Controlscited by 0
- 2026Measured Sliders: Learning Continuous Controls from Differentiable Image Measurementscited by 0
- 2026Measured Sliders: Learning Continuous Controls from Differentiable Image Measurements4 Sep 2026
- 2026Probing Perceptual Priors of MLLMs via Gibbs Sampling with Interpretable Generative Controls27 Aug 2026
- 2026SemanticSlider3D: Training-Free Continuous Semantic Editing for 3D Objects19 Aug 2026
- 2026RankT2I: A Submodular Framework for Discovering Interpretable and Diverse Semantics in Text-to-Image Models14 Aug 2026
- 2026Explore or Converge? Stage-Guided Per-Step Optimization for Diffusion Models7 Aug 2026
- 2026Contrastive-Augmented Flow Matching for Style-Content Disentanglement14 Jul 2026
- 2026Latent-Identity Tuning in Text-to-Image Personalization Models13 Jul 2026
- 2026Show Me Examples: Inferring Visual Concepts from Image Sets2 Jul 2026
- 2026STRIDE: Training-Free Diversity Guidance via PCA-Directed Feature Perturbation in Single-Step Diffusion Models12 May 2026
- 2026TokenDial: Continuous Attribute Control for Text-to-Video Generation in Visual Dial Space29 Mar 2026
- 2026PixelSmile: Toward Fine-Grained Facial Expression Editing26 Mar 2026
- 2026SLICE: Semantic Latent Injection via Compartmentalized Embedding for Image Watermarking13 Mar 2026
12 more
- 2026Style-Aware Gloss Control for Generative Non-Photorealistic Rendering18 Feb 2026
- 2026ELROND: Exploring and decomposing intrinsic capabilities of diffusion models10 Feb 2026
- 2026Rethinking Global Text Conditioning in Diffusion Transformers9 Feb 2026
- 2026Continuous Control of Editing Models via Adaptive-Origin Guidance3 Feb 2026
- 2025It's Never Too Late: Noise Optimization for Collapse Recovery in Trained Diffusion Models31 Dec 2025
- 2025CREward: A Type-Specific Creativity Reward Model25 Nov 2025
- 2025Coffee: Controllable Diffusion Fine-tuning18 Nov 2025
- 2025SliderEdit: Continuous Image Editing with Fine-Grained Instruction Control12 Nov 2025
- 2025Kontinuous Kontext: Continuous Strength Control for Instruction-based Image Editing9 Oct 2025
- 2025SAEdit: Token-level control for continuous image editing via Sparse AutoEncoder6 Oct 2025
- 2025A Course Correction in Steerability Evaluation: Revealing Miscalibration and Side Effects in LLMs27 May 2025
- 2025Distilling Diversity and Control in Diffusion Models13 Mar 2025
- 2025Distilling Diversity and Control in Diffusion Modelscited by 21
- 2025It's Never Too Late: Noise Optimization for Collapse Recovery in Trained Diffusion Modelscited by 9
- 2025SAEdit: Token-level control for continuous image editing via Sparse AutoEncodercited by 8
- 2026SLICE: Semantic Latent Injection via Compartmentalized Embedding for Image Watermarkingcited by 5
- 2026ELROND: Exploring and decomposing intrinsic capabilities of diffusion modelscited by 2
- 2025Coffee: Controllable Diffusion Fine-tuningcited by 1
- 2026STRIDE: Training-Free Diversity Guidance via PCA-Directed Feature Perturbation in Single-Step Diffusion Modelscited by 1
- 2026Explore or Converge? Stage-Guided Per-Step Optimization for Diffusion Modelscited by 1
- 2026Rethinking Global Text Conditioning in Diffusion Transformerscited by 0
- 2026TokenDial: Continuous Attribute Control for Text-to-Video Generation in Visual Dial Spacecited by 0
- 2026Contrastive-Augmented Flow Matching for Style-Content Disentanglementcited by 0
- 2026Explore or Converge? Stage-Guided Per-Step Optimization for Diffusion Models7 Aug 2026
- 2026Contrastive-Augmented Flow Matching for Style-Content Disentanglement14 Jul 2026
- 2026STRIDE: Training-Free Diversity Guidance via PCA-Directed Feature Perturbation in Single-Step Diffusion Models12 May 2026
- 2026TokenDial: Continuous Attribute Control for Text-to-Video Generation in Visual Dial Space29 Mar 2026
- 2026SLICE: Semantic Latent Injection via Compartmentalized Embedding for Image Watermarking13 Mar 2026
- 2026ELROND: Exploring and decomposing intrinsic capabilities of diffusion models10 Feb 2026
- 2026Rethinking Global Text Conditioning in Diffusion Transformers9 Feb 2026
- 2025It's Never Too Late: Noise Optimization for Collapse Recovery in Trained Diffusion Models31 Dec 2025
- 2025Coffee: Controllable Diffusion Fine-tuning18 Nov 2025
- 2025SAEdit: Token-level control for continuous image editing via Sparse AutoEncoder6 Oct 2025
- 2025Distilling Diversity and Control in Diffusion Models13 Mar 2025
- 2025CREward: A Type-Specific Creativity Reward Modelcited by 0
- 2025CREward: A Type-Specific Creativity Reward Model25 Nov 2025
- 2025Kontinuous Kontext: Continuous Strength Control for Instruction-based Image Editingcited by 15
- 2025SliderEdit: Continuous Image Editing with Fine-Grained Instruction Controlcited by 12
- 2026Continuous Control of Editing Models via Adaptive-Origin Guidancecited by 5
- 2026Style-Aware Gloss Control for Generative Non-Photorealistic Renderingcited by 0
- 2026PixelSmile: Toward Fine-Grained Facial Expression Editingcited by 0
- 2026Latent-Identity Tuning in Text-to-Image Personalization Modelscited by 0
- 2026RankT2I: A Submodular Framework for Discovering Interpretable and Diverse Semantics in Text-to-Image Modelscited by 0
- 2026SemanticSlider3D: Training-Free Continuous Semantic Editing for 3D Objectscited by 0
- 2026Probing Perceptual Priors of MLLMs via Gibbs Sampling with Interpretable Generative Controlscited by 0
- 2026Measured Sliders: Learning Continuous Controls from Differentiable Image Measurementscited by 0
- 2026Measured Sliders: Learning Continuous Controls from Differentiable Image Measurements4 Sep 2026
- 2026Probing Perceptual Priors of MLLMs via Gibbs Sampling with Interpretable Generative Controls27 Aug 2026
- 2026SemanticSlider3D: Training-Free Continuous Semantic Editing for 3D Objects19 Aug 2026
- 2026RankT2I: A Submodular Framework for Discovering Interpretable and Diverse Semantics in Text-to-Image Models14 Aug 2026
- 2026Latent-Identity Tuning in Text-to-Image Personalization Models13 Jul 2026
- 2026PixelSmile: Toward Fine-Grained Facial Expression Editing26 Mar 2026
- 2026Style-Aware Gloss Control for Generative Non-Photorealistic Rendering18 Feb 2026
- 2026Continuous Control of Editing Models via Adaptive-Origin Guidance3 Feb 2026
- 2025SliderEdit: Continuous Image Editing with Fine-Grained Instruction Control12 Nov 2025
- 2025Kontinuous Kontext: Continuous Strength Control for Instruction-based Image Editing9 Oct 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2023The Hidden Language of Diffusion Models
- 2024Learn Once, Edit Anywhere: Visual Direction Transfer for Diffusion Models
- 2026DriftScope: Measuring The Hidden Effects of Diffusion Model Adaptation
- 2024Decoding Diffusion: A Scalable Framework for Unsupervised Analysis of Latent Space Biases and Representations Using Natural Language Prompts
- 2025FreeSliders: Training-Free, Modality-Agnostic Concept Sliders for Fine-Grained Diffusion Control in Images, Audio, and Video
- 2025Emergence and Evolution of Interpretable Concepts in Diffusion Models
- 2023Diffusion Explainer: Visual Explanation for Text-to-image Stable Diffusion
- 2024Explaining generative diffusion models via visual analysis for interpretable decision-making process