Abstract: Skeleton contains the topological information of object, which is an important search aspect in image analysis.Traditional thinning algorithm for skeleton extraction can't guarantee the accuracy, while distance field algorithm can't guarantee continuity.A new method for skeleton extraction is proposed, which combines the distance transformation and thinning algorithm so as to overcome the disadvantage of the two algorithms.Experimental results shows that proposed method can extract accurate and continuous skeletons, which can satisfy the demand for practical application.