I create graphs in R or SciDavis andexport them to PDF (Vector format). Then I do post-editing using Inkscape.

FYI

R, SciDavis, and Inkscape are open-source tools.

I use ChemDraw or Corel Draw. Best regards

Omid,

I imagine that a great many different tools are used for illustration purposes and to find out what is 'usually' used throughout the world would be very difficult to do.

If instead you are asking what readers of RG use, well, I currently use Photoshop (CS) and Illustrator (10).

I've used GIMP and Inkscape recently with good results, even the Open Office drawing package. But I've also used Xerox Altos, and in the pre-silicon past I have *drawn*, manually glued and photocopied in illustrations. All methods, given time and effort, were acceptable.

It all rather depends on what level of illustration professionalism one is aiming for. Can you provide an example (3D line-art, graphing, architectural renders, molecular figures, etc.) of what you actually intend to use such a package for?

On that topic, I recommend a copy of E. Tufte's classic ' The Visual Display of Quantitative Information' to anyone interested in the art of transmitting information by visual means.

It really depends what your needs are, but I find it easiest to do the figures in Powerpoint.

You will have your data in PowerPoint anyway to show them at conferences, and new versions of Powerpoint allow you to save your files in 300 dpi quality. This allows you to save PPT slides as 300dpi TIF files, which is requested by most journals (interestingly many journals have started accepting ppt files as of late, probably they figured out that it is easier for authors, and the conversion may be made).

I generate my charts in Graphpad Prism - the quality of the figures is really superior to Excel and the software is much more versatile, offering many more options.

I generate bar graphs, line graphs and other such figures on Graph Pad Prism. I then move them to powerpoint (remember to change the dpi to 600 pixels) and then generate each figure on the powerpoint. Much easier to move around, label figure etc. Remember to keep the figure fonts and font sizes all the same so it will be easier to read when it is ultimately in the journal. Remember to also keep figures in black and white as most mentors cannot afford to pay the higher price for colored graphs. But for animations, since I can't (and mentor can't) afford CS Illustrator, I use powerpoint.

SigmaPlot has very nice graph options, but I mostly use SPSS or Excel for that. Also, newer Excel have nicer chart options

I would use R, really nice, best

Using LaTex you can have really nice diagrams

Using Corel Draw had Gave me nice diagrams....

Best wishes

I haven't found that a single program can handle all the things needed for making nice scientific figures. Here is the list of programs I use.

-Photoshop for figure composition and layering. The free option is GIMP, and also works well but the UI is not as intuitive.

-Inkscape for professinal looking vector graphics and model system illustration, and it is already free. IMO it works as good as illustrator for scientific figures.

-Graphpad Prism for data analysis and high resolution charts and graphs. Excel is an alternative but you lose a lot of data analysis capability and figure resolution.

-powerpoint for communication between authors about the figures. Libre office's presenter works okay for this as well.

-Blender and 3d studio max for 3D figures and model systems for making elaborate model system illustrations.

I love Prism 6!

For papers in LaTeX, I regularly use gnuplot and Maple for plots (both are capable of producing good-quality scalable eps); and Microsoft Visio for line art/diagrams (exporting to PDF which I then convert to EPS.) The advantage of these solutions is that line art is rendered as scalable graphics, not as a bitmap, so there are no jagged edges regardless of magnification, and the EPS file sizes tend to be small. I don't recommend bitmap formats (e.g., TIFF) for anything other than photographs.

I have also occasionally used Excel, although apparently, some folks think that Excel plots are too lowly for physics papers. (Curiously though, I've seen PowerPoint used on occasions for line art.) As others, I also used R and CorelDraw! in the past, but I don't use these regularly. Lastly, I've used the feynmf package on a few occasions for good-quality Feynman diagrams, but it's a bit of a pain to use.

Tecplot, CorelDraw

If you're using windows, VISIO is working well (and it's included in MSDN Alliance, your lab' may have subscribed), you can also use it to make UML diagrams.

On Linux, you can use Dia, Graphviz and others free softs. For both you have Libre/Open Office Draw, you could also use some softwares in the cloud. For instances, the Google tools for drawing in the google docs is nice too.

Scilab, because of open source and restful.

gnuplot gnuplot gnuplot gnuplot gnuplot gnuplot gnuplot gnuplot gnuplot gnuplot

It creates professionally-looking figures and can be used for quick, basic data analysis Figure definitions are all in small text files and hence can be easily handled by version control systems. Total control on how the figure looks like. EPS (vector graphics) output that can be later converted to anything you like, e.g. pdf.

Aable for charting, omnigraffle for arranging multiple charts and making basic diagrams.

OriginLab Origin Pro

I would go for GraphPad Prism and Adobe Illustrator/photoshop. The cool thing about the Adobe programs is that you can take in all kinds of data (graphs, blots, pictures) and align them properly and easily. Also, Illustrator is really good for making mechanistic overviews - the kind you see in nature reviews. Also, all is vector graphics, so no worries about blurriness if zooming in on figures. Also, lots of export formats and compressions are available.

Xfig and gnuplot is a good combination for LaTeX papers.

Gnuplot would be a pro. instrument.

Gnuplot is perfect.

I would prefer Graphpad Prism and Corel Draw. Corel draw enables you to make high quality figures.

Graphpad Prism is superb and very easy to use. It also incorporates statistical analysis, and provides advice on the appropriate test to use for your data. Exporting the files in various formats is very simple.

Whatever software you use, chose one that allows you to export your image as vector graphics and then, if you like, make it look even greater with adobe illustrator!

Thank you all for your fruitful information. I have been using Graphpad Prism, but i guess Adobe Illustrator will be the one i am looking for.

For Apple users, Data graph is a very handy program that enables one to make some nice graphics.

Though it is old, I have found nothing better than xmgrace in all the years I have used it. The output looks better, by default, than gnuplot and just as good as, e.g., Origin Pro.

Hi Omid. I find that the GraphPad Prism is a wonderful software to use in generating professional looking figures for publication purposes. Another one to consider is the R programme. Hope this helps!

I've been using Matlab for quite a while now, but it largely comes down to personal preference. Plenty of people use gnuplot and R (and many others I'm sure). Try a few and see which you're most comfortable with/pick up quickest.

For "relationship" based data I generally use Dia: https://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Apps/Dia?action=show&redirect=Dia

For plots I use matplotlib or gnuplot.

In the end I always want to use a "vector" drawing tool that can output clean PDF files so that they can be resized to any resolution and easily included in Latex.

I use simply open office draw, to draw pictures export those to .eps format, or else i use picture commands in latex

I have been using chem draw. best regards !

Thanks for all the fruitful information. Best Regards

I tend to use TikZ and PGFplots, a couple of packages for LaTeX. You can see a little of what they can do in texample.net

You can export to TikZ from many programs including InkScape via a plugin and Matlab via a script. One big benefit is that it is rendered by your latex compiler meaning you get the same fonts in plot axis and the document proper. LaTeX also renders any math and the graphics themselves are vector format.

http://texample.net

You should take a look at this: http://worrydream.com/#!/DrawingDynamicVisualizationsTalk

You might find it useful or find some inspiration.

I create graphs in R or SciDavis andexport them to PDF (Vector format). Then I do post-editing using Inkscape.

FYI

R, SciDavis, and Inkscape are open-source tools.

I suggest Adobe Illustrator

Maybe we can use latexdraw, to draw the pictures and takes codes and paste it into our latex file.  This is also possible

I prefer to use Microsoft office powerpoint and for complex schematics, I suggest  www.draw.io. 

Inkscape (open source + compatible wit LaTex), GnuPlot and CorelDRAW and really really professional will be the adobe illustrator (quite expensive, so not suitable for scientists :D)

ggplot2 is free, very flexible, and produces all kinds of general purpose charts in publication quality. My favorite workflow is an R script that reads and transforms the data from a file and uses ggplot2 to render and save the graphics. This gives me customized charts without overhead of manually postprocessing the results, for instance in Illustrator.

yEd is another good free tool for creating diagrams.

http://tutorials.iq.harvard.edu/R/Rgraphics/Rgraphics.html

https://www.yworks.com/products/yed

ggplot2 and .eps saved figures from MATLAB would be more tha enough concerning scientific computing and computational sciences.

I guess matplotlib is your best friend if you know Python. otherwise if you do not know python, make friends with python should save you a lot of time.

gincker.com has various chart templates that allows you to create various charts and graphics without the need to write a single line of code.

These templates cover a broad range of applications, including 2D line charts, bar charts, pie charts, 3D charts, 3D shapes, 2D and 3D complex-variable charts, vector-streamline charts, contour, fractal, and statistical distribution functions.

The following link shows a live 3D parametric surface chart:

https://gincker.com/3d-parametric-chart