I used to use Streamline all the time and I've used the Live Trace feature
in CS2 a fair amount. As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no
difference between them. Live Trace is literally Streamline folded into CS2.

I actually like the fact that it creates a white shape on top of a black
shape to create the illusion of lines. This allows you to vary the thickness
of the "lines" (i.e., the black portion that peeks out from behind the white
shape). This lets you mimic a true ink drawing with variation in line
weight. Another bonus is that you can easily apply a color or gradient fill
to the white object to quickly create simple color art with black outlines
(sort of a comic book style). Several of the illustrations on the following
web page were created using this method (the skull, uterus, and teeth):

http://www.rit.edu/~japfaa/anatomy.html

Live Trace comes with a bunch of presets that you can experiment with to
find one that works best for your particular application. I find that the
"Inked Drawings" setting provides gives good results in converting pen and
ink art (as the name implies). Somewhere in the Live Trace Settings you can
change the Conversion Method from "Outline" to "Centerline". This will draw
a single path down the center of each linear element in your raster art
instead of outlining each shape or drawing white and black objects on top of
one another. I haven't used this approach very much so I'm not sure how well
it works.

Jim



___________________________________________________________

James A. Perkins, MS, MFA, CMI, FAMI
Board Certified Medical Illustrator
Fellow, Association of Medical Illustrators

Associate Professor of Medical Illustration
College of Imaging Arts and Sciences
Rochester Institute of Technology

RIT office:
Bldg. 7A, Room 3415
73 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, New York 14623
phone: 585-475-2443    fax: 585-475-6447

Studio:
115 D'Angelo Parkway
Avon, NY 14414
phone: 585-226-8149    fax: 585-226-6965

http://www.rit.edu/~japfaa
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