To overcome the problem of poor recognition of traditional face recognition algorithms in single sample environment, a single sample face recognition algorithm combining improved center-symmetric local binary pattern and bit-plane decomposition (ICSDBP) is proposed. Firstly, the texture feature of a face image is extracted by the improved center-symmetric local binary pattern operator to obtain two texture feature images with different radii, and then each texture feature image is decomposed into 4 bit-plane images. Finally, eight feature images are combined in series, and the nearest neighbor classifier is used for classification and recognition. The simulation results on the AR, CAS-PEAL and Extend Yale B face databases show that the proposed algorithm has high recognition rate and high recognition speed, and it is robust to the variations of face illumination and face expression.