# ISPDiffuser: Learning RAW-to-sRGB Mappings with Texture-Aware Diffusion Models and Histogram-Guided Color Consistency

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.19283 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19283/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 26 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Mar 2025.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Image generation, text-to-image and editing](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/image-generation-text-to-image-and-editing/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 26 of 26)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [DPM-Solver: A Fast ODE Solver for Diffusion Probabilistic Model Sampling in Around 10 Steps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00927/) (2022)
- [Imagic: Text-Based Real Image Editing with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.09276/) (2022)
- [MUSIQ: Multi-scale Image Quality Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.05997/) (2021)
- [PWC-Net: CNNs for Optical Flow Using Pyramid, Warping, and Cost Volume](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.02371/) (2017)
- [Come-Closer-Diffuse-Faster: Accelerating Conditional Diffusion Models for Inverse Problems through Stochastic Contraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05146/) (2021)
- [CycleISP: Real Image Restoration via Improved Data Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.07761/) (2020)
- [Low-Light Image Enhancement with Wavelet-based Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00306/) (2023)
- [Replacing Mobile Camera ISP with a Single Deep Learning Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05509/) (2020)
- [Elucidating the Exposure Bias in Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.15321/) (2023)
- [Invertible Image Signal Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.15061/) (2021)
- [DeepISP: Towards Learning an End-to-End Image Processing Pipeline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.06724/) (2018)
- [Diffusion Models in Low-Level Vision: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11138/) (2024)
- [LightenDiffusion: Unsupervised Low-Light Image Enhancement with Latent-Retinex Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.08939/) (2024)
- [ADNet: Attention-guided Deformable Convolutional Network for High Dynamic Range Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.10697/) (2021)
- [AIM 2020 Challenge on Learned Image Signal Processing Pipeline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.04994/) (2020)
- [Learning RAW-to-sRGB Mappings with Inaccurately Aligned Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.08119/) (2021)
- [AWNet: Attentive Wavelet Network for Image ISP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.09228/) (2020)
- [Learned Smartphone ISP on Mobile NPUs with Deep Learning, Mobile AI 2021 Challenge: Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.07809/) (2021)
- [Deep Tone Mapping Operator for High Dynamic Range Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.04197/) (2019)
- [Enhancing RAW-to-sRGB with Decoupled Style Structure in Fourier Domain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.02161/) (2024)
- [RecDiffusion: Rectangling for Image Stitching with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.19164/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [DMAligner: Enhancing Image Alignment via Diffusion Model Based View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.23022/) (2026)
- [Raw-JPEG Adapter: Efficient Raw Image Compression with JPEG](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.19624/) (2025)
- [RawGen: Learning Camera Raw Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.00093/) (2026)
- [RPBA-Net: An Interpretable Residual Pyramid Bilateral Affine Network for RAW-Domain ISP Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.03626/) (2026)
- [ZeroIDIR: Zero-Reference Illumination Degradation Image Restoration with Perturbed Consistency Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.11435/) (2026)
- [FujinSplat: Seeing Through Smoke with RAW-Domain Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.06017/) (2026)
- [Visual Autoregressive Priors for RAW-to-sRGB Image Signal Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.18302/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

RAW-to-sRGB mapping, or the simulation of the traditional camera image signal processor (ISP), aims to generate DSLR-quality sRGB images from raw data captured by smartphone sensors. Despite achieving comparable results to sophisticated handcrafted camera ISP solutions, existing learning-based methods still struggle with detail disparity and color distortion. In this paper, we present ISPDiffuser, a diffusion-based decoupled framework that separates the RAW-to-sRGB mapping into detail reconstruction in grayscale space and color consistency mapping from grayscale to sRGB. Specifically, we propose a texture-aware diffusion model that leverages the generative ability of diffusion models to focus on local detail recovery, in which a texture enrichment loss is further proposed to prompt the diffusion model to generate more intricate texture details. Subsequently, we introduce a histogram-guided color consistency module that utilizes color histogram as guidance to learn precise color information for grayscale to sRGB color consistency mapping, with a color consistency loss designed to constrain the learned color information. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed ISPDiffuser outperforms state-of-the-art competitors both quantitatively and visually. The code is available at https://github.com/RenYangSCU/ISPDiffuser.