Systems and methods are described for learning visual object cutout from a single example. In one implementation, an exemplary system determines the color context near each block in a model image to create an appearance model. The system also learns color sequences that occur across visual edges in the model image to create an edge profile model. The exemplary system then infers segmentation boundaries in unknown images based on the appearance model and edge profile model. In one implementation, the exemplary system minimizes the energy in a graph-cut model where the appearance model is used for data energy and the edge profile is used to modulate edges. The system is not limited to images with nearly identical foregrounds or backgrounds. Some variations in scale, rotation, and viewpoint are allowed.