# Vector Scaffolding: Inter-Scale Orchestration for Differentiable Image Vectorization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.11913 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.11913/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 24 of its 33 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 May 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 24 of 24)

- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Implicit Neural Representations with Periodic Activation Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09661/) (2020)
- [4D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Dynamic Scene Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08528/) (2023)
- [2D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17888/) (2024)
- [DreamGaussian: Generative Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16653/) (2023)
- [Dynamic 3D Gaussians: Tracking by Persistent Dynamic View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09713/) (2023)
- [SuGaR: Surface-Aligned Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Mesh Reconstruction and High-Quality Mesh Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12775/) (2023)
- [GaussianDreamer: Fast Generation from Text to 3D Gaussians by Bridging 2D and 3D Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08529/) (2023)
- [Adan: Adaptive Nesterov Momentum Algorithm for Faster Optimizing Deep Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.06677/) (2022)
- [Im2Vec: Synthesizing Vector Graphics without Vector Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02798/) (2021)
- [VectorFusion: Text-to-SVG by Abstracting Pixel-Based Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.11319/) (2022)
- [GaussianImage: 1000 FPS Image Representation and Compression by 2D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.08551/) (2024)
- [A Learned Representation for Scalable Vector Graphics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.02632/) (2019)
- [Towards Layer-wise Image Vectorization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.04655/) (2022)
- [SVGDreamer: Text Guided SVG Generation with Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16476/) (2023)
- [DiffSketcher: Text Guided Vector Sketch Synthesis through Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14685/) (2023)
- [Image-GS: Content-Adaptive Image Representation via 2D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01866/) (2024)
- [Text-to-Vector Generation with Neural Path Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.10317/) (2024)
- [TetSphere Splatting: Representing High-Quality Geometry with Lagrangian Volumetric Meshes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20283/) (2024)
- [Layered Image Vectorization via Semantic Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.05404/) (2024)
- [Bezier Splatting for Fast and Differentiable Vector Graphics Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16424/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Differentiable vector graphics have enabled powerful gradient-based optimization of vector primitives directly from raster images. However, existing frameworks formulate this as a flat optimization problem, forcing hundreds to thousands of randomly initialized curves to blindly compete for pixel-level error reduction. This disordered optimization leads to topology collapse, where macroscopic structures are distorted by internal high-frequency noise, resulting in a redundant and uneditable "polygon soup" that limits practical editability. To address this limitation, we propose Vector Scaffolding, a novel hierarchical optimization framework that shifts from flat pixel-matching to structured topological construction tailored for vector graphics. By identifying a key cause of topology collapse as the mathematical imbalance between area and boundary gradients, we introduce Interior Gradient Aggregation to stabilize the learning dynamics of multi-scale curve mixtures. Upon this stabilized landscape, we employ Progressive Stratification and Rapid Inflation Scheduling to progressively densify vector primitives with extremely high learning rates (× 50). Experiments demonstrate that our approach accelerates optimization by 2.5× while simultaneously improving PSNR by up to 1.4 dB over the previous state of the art.