We demonstrate how the scale axis transform can be used to compute a parameterized family of shape skeletons. The skeletons gradually represent only the most important features of a shape, in a scale-adaptive manner. Here a shape O is any bounded open subset of the plane R². The scale axis for scale value s is the medial axis of the multiplicatively grown shape O <inf>s</inf>, where O<inf>s</inf> is the union of medial balls of O with radii scaled by the factor s. We present a simple algorithm to compute a parameterized family of skeletons for shapes that are finite unions of balls in the plane. The algorithm is based on the scale axis transform. We compare the computed family of skeletons with two medial axis filters, namely theλmedial axis, and a filter based on an angle criterion.