[GRASSLIST:4068] vectorizing rasters

[Kirk R. Wythers]

I have a some scanned maps (black and white, essentially line art) that 
I have imported into a grass53 xy location. I am looking for more 
efficient ways to convert them to vector files than heads up digitizing 
with v.digit.

I have tried r.thin and v.line. However, the resultant map has got lots 
of little dangles that hang off "real" lines. I was going to try using 
v.trim to remove them (my guess is that they are around 2 -3 pixels in 
length), but I'm getting "v.trim command not found", was v.trim removed 
from 53?

That being said, an even bigger problem is all the little 2 to 5 pixel 
line segments the within the enclosed polygons. These are a result of 
trying to vectorize a raster that had bunches of little dots all over 
the place that had nothing to do with the actual line art of the map, 
but were created by the scanner as a representation of paper color.

The main question here is this. Am I wasting my time trying to skip 
over the v.digit step? or would anyone recommend some kind of filtering 
approach first (photoshop or the like) before the maps are even read 
into grass?

Thanks


Kirk