Live Trace stroke only line connections bowed

[photogranny]

I have to scan and Live Trace hand-inked illustrations. Once the art is Live Traced and I've made all stroke weights 1pt (for example), where paths connect/intersect most lines bend just slightly to meet at that point of intersection. The scans I use are at 600ppi and I clean them up for obvious problems. My drawing ability is not such that I can perfect the scan – only make minor improvements.

Most of the illustrations are complicated enough that it's not feasible to smooth them out, as it requires working with individual segments since they're not all connected. Using the "smooth" tool doesn't work for this at all.

My question is this: Are there settings in Live Trace that will somehow eliminate this problem? Or, does anyone have a suggestion for easily smoothing those intersections?

Here is a link to the sample file. The file size is 1.3mb. In the file, I've included an embedded placed psd file, one processed in Live Trace, and one Expanded. I've circled what I'm looking at and asking about. I've also included a screen shot of the settings I've used.

http://www.box.net/shared/static/0b9hixd341.pdf

I am currently using CS3 Illustrator and Photoshop, on Mac OS 10.6.5.

Thanks!
Donna

 

[apepp]

...it can be tricky to get perfect trace using only strokes, sometimes traces are better with the strokes option turned off...also smoother traces can result from blurring the image slightly and converting to 1bit images before live tracing, the trace is quite dependent on how smooth the source image is...

...the other variable is that one set of trace settings might not suit every image...

...have a look at experimenting with blur and reducing the min stroke, but I think to eliminate stroke problems sometimes means turning strokes off...

andrew

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