Software for scientific drawings

[Barry M. OConnor]

At 11:15 AM -0500 11/3/1998, Jeremy Rice wrote:
>A few days ago, I posted a message to this list suggesting a few programs to
>use for the conversion of line art into electronic format....
>
>>Is Adobe Illustrator able to go all the way from a photographed image to
>>[line art] in a reasonably effective way???
>
Jeremy discussed the pros and cons of using Adobe Illustrator to produce
publishable figures.  I've been doing this for several years and agree with
most of his comments, particularly about the length of time it takes to
produce a final image from a scanned drawing.  However, I have found that
although it does take me longer to do this than to hand draw a figure in
ink, the time saving comes with the second, third, etc. related species
that I'm illustrating. If the illustrations are fairly similar, it does
save considerable time by pasting the first figure over the scanned
"template" of the second and just adjusting the lines.  All of the
formating is already done, and if the figures are not too complex, this can
save time.  You can see examples of figures produced this way in my 1996
paper in the Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 64 (4)
suppl.:15-34.
...

>Unfortunately, there -used- to be a program that could automate the
>conversion.  It was called Adobe Streamline, and it's no longer in production.
>(A -real- shame.)

In my experience Streamline didn't really save any time.  Unless the
original figure was prepared with great care (leaving spaces between all
lines that could be in contact), it was more work to "untangle" the lines
produced.  The same was true with the "autotrace" feature in Illustrator.

Barry M. OConnor                phone: (734) 763-4354
Museum of Zoology               FAX: (734) 763-4080
University of Michigan          e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079  USA