The answer depends on how complicated the figures are ....

Dear Professor Paul Milham

Would you please give some information from your own experience. It would be valuable information for me and other researchers.

Thanks,

I used to use Excel. It really has enough options to make the plots look how you want them to look.

Now I use the ggplot package in R. Once you understand the grammar and options, it's not too difficult to get the plots to look exactly how you want. There are plenty of examples online. And you can duplicate your own code from past plots to make things easy.

I'm sure there's some kind of R-based plot builder online that would make things easy, but I don't know of any in particular.

Thanks Professor Sal Mangiafico

Sal has the right idea

R-is good!

Excel is the best software as you can do miraculous plots with it.

Dear Prof.

I think it mainly depends on the situation. When processing the table-form data, I prefer to use Excel (You can also insert some plugins which can make your figures more smooth). While, when I need to draw a flowchart, Visio/PPT is a good choice.

It depends on the nature of information being communicated but I’ve used combinations of all of these programs. Excel, RStudio, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator (most used), 3D Slicer, Blender, and ArcGIS Pro.

I used this following tools

microsoft word, microsoft excel, anova, student T-text, photo microscope and others

@mannan I mostly use Microsoft excel

I use MetaPost or Tikz, in LaTeX environment, for 2D figures. It is more precise.

Mannan

The display of data may differ. Tables , of course, are the best giving the exact values. Plotting data is best to show the overall trend. However, modern computer facilities offer a range of choices. Excel gives the option of calculating and plotting of data. Generally, the researcher must learn how to utilize these options just as good as he manages his scientific or engineering skills. Good luck