# Edit Transfer: Learning Image Editing via Vision In-Context Relations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.13327 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.13327/

## Key facts

- Cited by 23 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 30 of its 34 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Mar 2025.

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

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (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)
- [Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09748/) (2022)
- [Layer Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.06450/) (2016)
- [Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03206/) (2024)
- [InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09800/) (2022)
- [Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01626/) (2022)
- [Pick-a-Pic: An Open Dataset of User Preferences for Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.01569/) (2023)
- [MasaCtrl: Tuning-Free Mutual Self-Attention Control for Consistent Image Synthesis and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08465/) (2023)
- [Paint by Example: Exemplar-based Image Editing with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.13227/) (2022)
- [AnyDoor: Zero-shot Object-level Image Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09481/) (2023)
- [Images Speak in Images: A Generalist Painter for In-Context Visual Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.02499/) (2022)
- [Visual Prompting via Image Inpainting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00647/) (2022)
- [Sequential Modeling Enables Scalable Learning for Large Vision Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00785/) (2023)
- [Diffusion Model-Based Image Editing: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17525/) (2024)
- [Taming Rectified Flow for Inversion and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04746/) (2024)
- [In-Context LoRA for Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23775/) (2024)
- [What Makes Good Examples for Visual In-Context Learning?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.13670/) (2023)
- [Cross-Image Attention for Zero-Shot Appearance Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.03335/) (2023)
- [Stable Flow: Vital Layers for Training-Free Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.14430/) (2024)
- [DiT4Edit: Diffusion Transformer for Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.03286/) (2024)
- [Zero-shot Image Editing with Reference Imitation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07547/) (2024)
- [FreeEdit: Mask-free Reference-based Image Editing with Multi-modal Instruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.18071/) (2024)
- [Attention Distillation: A Unified Approach to Visual Characteristics Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.20235/) (2025)
- [Multi-modal Attention for Speech Emotion Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.04107/) (2020)
- [PIXELS: Progressive Image Xemplar-based Editing with Latent Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.09826/) (2025)
- [SpecRef: A Fast Training-free Baseline of Specific Reference-Condition Real Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.03433/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [VisualCloze: A Universal Image Generation Framework via Visual In-Context Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.07960/) (2025)
- [RelationAdapter: Learning and Transferring Visual Relation with Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.02528/) (2025)
- [DiffDecompose: Layer-Wise Decomposition of Alpha-Composited Images via Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21541/) (2025)
- [TextFlux: An OCR-Free DiT Model for High-Fidelity Multilingual Scene Text Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17778/) (2025)
- [DualVLA: Building a Generalizable Embodied Agent via Partial Decoupling of Reasoning and Action](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22134/) (2025)
- [PairEdit: Learning Semantic Variations for Exemplar-based Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07992/) (2025)
- [UniVid: Unifying Vision Tasks with Pre-trained Video Generation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.21760/) (2025)
- [Spanning the Visual Analogy Space with a Weight Basis of LoRAs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.15727/) (2026)
- [IC-Effect: Precise and Efficient Video Effects Editing via In-Context Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.15635/) (2025)
- [In-Context Sync-LoRA for Portrait Video Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.03013/) (2025)
- [Durian: Dual Reference Image-Guided Portrait Animation with Attribute Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04434/) (2025)
- [When Privacy Meets Recovery: The Overlooked Half of Surrogate-Driven Privacy Preservation for MLLM Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07166/) (2025)
- [Geometric Image Editing via Effects-Sensitive In-Context Inpainting with Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.08388/) (2026)
- [EditTransfer++: Toward Faithful and Efficient Visual-Prompt-Guided Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.07455/) (2026)
- [Delta-Adapter: Scalable Exemplar-Based Image Editing with Single-Pair Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.07940/) (2026)
- [Cycle-Consistent Tuning for Layered Image Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.20989/) (2026)
- [Abstraction in Style: Beyond Texture and Color](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.29924/) (2026)
- [Semantic-Structural Alignment for Generative Pictorial Charts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.06498/) (2026)
- [When Recovery Matters: The Blind Spot of Surrogate Privacy in MLLM Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.07171/) (2026)
- [HairPort: In-context 3D-aware Hair Import and Transfer for Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.12562/) (2026)
- [MirrorPPR: Exemplar-Based Portrait Photo Retouching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29308/) (2026)
- [VicEdit: Learning to Edit Videos from Visual In-Context Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.16745/) (2026)
- [TransPhy: Visual In-Context Learning for Physically Grounded Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.24119/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce a new setting, Edit Transfer, where a model learns a transformation from just a single source-target example and applies it to a new query image. While text-based methods excel at semantic manipulations through textual prompts, they often struggle with precise geometric details (e.g., poses and viewpoint changes). Reference-based editing, on the other hand, typically focuses on style or appearance and fails at non-rigid transformations. By explicitly learning the editing transformation from a source-target pair, Edit Transfer mitigates the limitations of both text-only and appearance-centric references. Drawing inspiration from in-context learning in large language models, we propose a visual relation in-context learning paradigm, building upon a DiT-based text-to-image model. We arrange the edited example and the query image into a unified four-panel composite, then apply lightweight LoRA fine-tuning to capture complex spatial transformations from minimal examples. Despite using only 42 training samples, Edit Transfer substantially outperforms state-of-the-art TIE and RIE methods on diverse non-rigid scenarios, demonstrating the effectiveness of few-shot visual relation learning.