DiagramGLIGEN: Diffusion Diagram Generation

Updated 19 December 2025

DiagramGLIGEN is a diffusion-based diagram generation model that integrates LLM-produced layout plans to ensure semantic and structural accuracy.
It enhances a Stable Diffusion backbone with gated self-attention and dedicated layout encoders to precisely control object, relation, and text placements.
The system supports cross-platform interoperability by generating editable diagrams compatible with tools like PowerPoint and Inkscape.

DiagramGLIGEN is a diffusion-based diagram generation model developed as part of the DiagrammerGPT framework to address the limitations of traditional text-to-image (T2I) models in generating structurally and semantically accurate diagrams. Unlike typical T2I approaches, which struggle with dense object arrangements, complex relational connectivity (e.g., arrows/lines), and text label clarity, DiagramGLIGEN integrates LLM-produced layout plans via a specialized architectural modification of GLIGEN’s Stable-Diffusion backbone. The system tightly grounds the visual generation process to detailed plans, yielding open-domain, editable diagrams tailored for cross-platform interoperability (Zala et al., 2023).

1. Architectural Foundations and Modifications

DiagramGLIGEN is architected atop GLIGEN's latent diffusion model—specifically the Stable Diffusion v1.4 UNet—augmented for fine-grained spatial, relational, and textual control (Li et al., 2023). The central innovations are:

Layout-grounding via gated self-attention: In each transformer block of the UNet, a gating scalar $G \in (0,1)$ modulates attention between textual captions and a set of layout tokens derived from the diagram plan. Concretely, hidden states $H \in \mathbb{R}^{S \times d}$ are processed through a gated cross-attention where $Q = HW_Q$ , $K=[E_{\text{caption}}; L]W_K$ , $V=[E_{\text{caption}}; L]W_V$ , $A = \text{softmax} \left( \frac{QK^T}{\sqrt{d}} \right)$ , and $H' = H + G \cdot (AV)$ .
Dedicated layout encoder modules: Each diagram entity—objects $O_i$ , text labels $T_j$ , and relations $R_k$ (arrows/lines)—is converted to a fixed-dimensional embedding. For objects and relations, the CLIP text encoder $E_{\text{CLIP-text}}$ is used; for text labels, the corresponding region is cropped and embedded with the CLIP image encoder $E_{\text{CLIP-img}}$ .
Inheritance of object-control heads: DiagramGLIGEN retains GLIGEN’s heads for entity “stamping,” guiding per-object placement using the same layout embeddings.
Training on the AI2D-Caption dataset: The model is end-to-end trained using a diffusion denoising objective on densely annotated diagrams, optimizing for precise placement and semantic accuracy.

2. Diagram Plan Formalism and Tokenization

Central to the model is the formalization of diagram plans as tuple $P = (O,T,R,B)$ :

$O = \{O_i\}$ : Object descriptions.
$T = \{T_j\}$ : Text labels.
$R = \{r_k=(s_k,d_k,\text{type}_k)\}$ : Relations, such as arrows/lines between $O \cup T$ entities.
$B = \{ b_x \}$ : Bounding boxes $(x,y,w,h) \in [0,100]^4$ for all objects and labels.

These plan elements are embedded as layout tokens $L = \{\ell_x\}$ : $\ell_{O_i} = E_{\mathrm{CLIP}\text{-text}}(O_i)$

$\ell_{T_j} = E_{\mathrm{CLIP}\text{-img}}(\text{crop at }b_{T_j})$

$\ell_{r_k} = E_{\mathrm{CLIP}\text{-text}}(\langle \text{type}_k \rangle \text{ from } \langle s_k \rangle \text{ to } \langle d_k \rangle)$

This explicit encoding enables high-fidelity grounding of spatial and semantic relationships within the UNet feature stream.

3. Training Objectives and Loss Functions

DiagramGLIGEN training adheres closely to diffusion model conventions, employing only the primary latent diffusion denoising loss. For ground-truth diagram latent $x_0$ and noisy input $x_t$ at timestep $t$ :

$L_{\text{diff}} = \mathbb{E}_{t\sim \text{Uniform}(1,\ldots,T),\, x_0,\, \epsilon \sim \mathcal{N}(0,I)} \left[ \| \epsilon - \epsilon_\theta(x_t, t, \text{caption}, L) \|^2 \right]$

No separate layout or text losses are introduced. Conditioning on both caption and layout tokens during training guides object placement, arrow connectivity, and label arrangement (Zala et al., 2023).

4. Generation Pipeline and Connectivity Enforcement

DiagramGLIGEN generation is multi-stage:

LLM-based planning: An input prompt is parsed by a planner (e.g., GPT-4) to yield an initial diagram plan $P_0$ .
Planner-auditor feedback loop: The plan is iteratively refined through feedback until plan $P^*$ is finalized.
Tokenization: All entities and relations are encoded into $L = \{\ell_x\}$ .
Diffusion generation: Diagram creation proceeds via DDPM steps, decrementally denoising $x_T \sim \mathcal{N}(0,I)$ conditioned on caption and layout tokens.
Decoding: The final latent $x_0$ is decoded into an RGB diagram $D^*$ .
Text label rendering: Raster text labels $T_j$ are precisely “drawn” inside their corresponding boxes $b_{T_j}$ in $D^*$ by a post-processing module using Python’s Pillow library, circumventing the instability of text generation in diffusion models.

Diagram connectivity is maintained by the correspondence between plan-boxes, encoded arrow tokens, and their spatial associations, which the gated self-attention module internalizes for precise rendering.

5. Text Label Rendering Mechanism

To circumvent diffusion model limitations with textual fidelity, DiagramGLIGEN hands off all text rendering to an explicit rule-based module:

Each label string $T_j$ is placed in its plan-specified bounding box $b_{T_j}$ in the output diagram, using a sans-serif font scaled to fit.
No learned embeddings are used for font; this guarantees crisp, legible text in situ regardless of diagram complexity.

This decoupling of raster rendering ensures that DiagramGLIGEN diagrams are both visually semantically accurate and machine-readable, supporting post-generation editing workflows (Zala et al., 2023).

6. Multiplatform and Vector Graphic Export

The structural decoupling of diagram plan $P^*$ guarantees platform non-specificity:

PowerPoint: Importation of icons based on $O_i$ descriptions via VBA, precise box/arrow layout, and editable text labels.
Inkscape/SVG: API-based drawing of object icons, relational arrows, and text in diagram boxes via Python extension.
General scripting: The JSON-based plan $P^*$ is fully portable to any vector graphic environment supporting automated shape, path, and text rendering.

This design enables rigorous downstream applications in scientific illustration, education, and interactive editing across diverse platforms.

7. Context within Diffusion-Grounded Generation Paradigms

DiagramGLIGEN’s approach directly extends GLIGEN’s open-set grounded image generation capabilities (Li et al., 2023), which utilize gated self-attention for spatial and semantic entity conditioning. In contrast to the original GLIGEN—which targets free-form scenes—DiagramGLIGEN specializes in symbolic, schematic layouts by leveraging composite plan tokens, full connectivity specification, and post-hoc text rendering. The adaptation includes:

Retention of GLIGEN’s frozen UNet weights and scheduled gating for precise-to-aesthetic tradeoff.
Extension of grounding tokens to represent diagram primitives, relational arrows, and text regions.
End-to-end integration with LLM-driven planning (DiagrammerGPT) and human-in-the-loop refinement.

A plausible implication is that the architectural recipes established in DiagramGLIGEN can be generalized to other domains requiring explicit spatial and relational control, including UI mockup generation, floorplan synthesis, and other vector-based schematic representations.

DiagramGLIGEN represents a targeted instantiation of the GLIGEN architecture, tailored for open-domain, structurally-complex diagram synthesis with explicit cross-platform usability and precise control over object layout, connectivity, and textual elements (Zala et al., 2023, Li et al., 2023).