# SEAL: Semantic-aware Single-image Sticker Personalization with a Large-scale Sticker-tag Dataset

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26883 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.26883/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 32 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Apr 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [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)
- [Emerging Properties in Self-Supervised Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14294/) (2021)
- [DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12242/) (2022)
- [Multi-Concept Customization of Text-to-Image Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04488/) (2022)
- [InstantBooth: Personalized Text-to-Image Generation without Test-Time Finetuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03411/) (2023)
- [MS-Diffusion: Multi-subject Zero-shot Image Personalization with Layout Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07209/) (2024)
- [JeDi: Joint-Image Diffusion Models for Finetuning-Free Personalized Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.06187/) (2024)
- [λ-ECLIPSE: Multi-Concept Personalized Text-to-Image Diffusion Models by Leveraging CLIP Latent Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05195/) (2024)
- [UnZipLoRA: Separating Content and Style from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04465/) (2024)
- [ClassDiffusion: More Aligned Personalization Tuning with Explicit Class Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17532/) (2024)
- [APISR: Anime Production Inspired Real-World Anime Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01598/) (2024)
- [CoRe: Context-Regularized Text Embedding Learning for Text-to-Image Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.15914/) (2024)
- [Towards Expressive Communication with Internet Memes: A New Multimodal Conversation Dataset and Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.01839/) (2021)
- [AttnDreamBooth: Towards Text-Aligned Personalized Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.05000/) (2024)
- [Bridging the Gap Between End-to-End and Two-Step Text Spotting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.04624/) (2024)
- [A-SDM: Accelerating Stable Diffusion through Model Assembly and Feature Inheritance Strategies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.00210/) (2024)
- [SerialGen: Personalized Image Generation by First Standardization Then Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.01485/) (2024)
- [U-Sticker: A Large-Scale Multi-Domain User Sticker Dataset for Retrieval and Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19108/) (2025)
- [CHIMERA: Adaptive Cache Injection and Semantic Anchor Prompting for Zero-shot Image Morphing with Morphing-oriented Metrics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07155/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Synthesizing a target concept from a single reference image is challenging in diffusion-based personalized text-to-image generation, particularly for sticker personalization where prompts often require explicit attribute edits. With only one reference, test-time fine-tuning (TTF) methods tend to overfit, producing textitvisual entanglement, where background artifacts are absorbed into the learned concept, and textitstructural rigidity, where the model memorizes reference-specific spatial configurations and loses contextual controllability. To address these issues, we introduce SEmantic-aware single-image sticker personALization (SEAL), a plug-and-play, architecture-agnostic adaptation module that integrates into existing personalization pipelines without modifying their U-Net-based diffusion backbones. SEAL applies three components during embedding adaptation: (1) a Semantic-guided Spatial Attention Loss, (2) a Split-merge Token Strategy, and (3) Structure-aware Layer Restriction. To support sticker-domain personalization with attribute-level control, we present StickerBench, a large-scale sticker image dataset with structured tags under a six-attribute schema (Appearance, Emotion, Action, Camera Composition, Style, Background). These annotations provide a consistent interface for varying context while keeping target identity fixed, enabling systematic evaluation of identity disentanglement and contextual controllability. Experiments show that SEAL consistently improves identity preservation while maintaining contextual controllability, highlighting the importance of explicit spatial and structural constraints during test-time adaptation. The code, StickerBench, and project page will be publicly released.