I use GraphPrism, it is super good, Another one is the coreal.

all the best

I agree: GraphPad Prism 6 is really excellent, not only for plots but also for simple statistical analysis

Me too

Often MS PowerPoint is underestimated...i think it can b used smartly to create impressive figures...

Canvas 14 is another gud option...

I really enjoy R as a way to make graphs and tables, and it is FREE

Hi Bechara:

I think that for creating graphs like schemes of signalling pathways the best option is Adobe Illustrator or any other vector based software. Powerpoint renders low quality figures, although it's simpler. My advice is: Start creating a library of symbols and drawing your own vectors (membrane, cells, receptors, channels...) and you'll be able to insert them like a symbol. Youtube is full of non-scientific A Illustrator tutorials. There are commercial packages of cellsignalling and stuff, but if you use AI by your own you can get whatever you want.

Hope it helps,

cheers

I would give openoffice draw a try...

For Cell Signaling pathways and cell motility figures, I think Powerpoint will work fine. It is easy to use, and if you are really good at it, you can really make a very high quality figures.

as for R, though it is difficult to deal with at the beginning (especially if you are not used to the command line), then it becomes a time saver if you need to produce, let's say, a hundred plots to choose from or some fancy heatmap, dotplot etc. If you want something to ease the learning, the import of data tables and the export of graphics, you can try Rkward or Rstudio

I think CorelDRAW is the best option. It is easy to use and you can save your figure in a various formats...

(pray on) PHOTOSHOP

To work with gel images I use Photoshop. To assemble the final multipanel figure I use PowerPoint. It is not possible to generate good quality tiff or jpg images using PowerPoint. To overcome this problem I print my final figure as pdf file (with required resolution). After that I open file in Adobe Acrobat, crop it if necessary and save it as tif or jpg file. This is little bit complicated process, but work fine for me.

I disagree with Mr Nikonov on the point that PowerPoint can not give acceptable quality figures. Well, i cant say about 3rd grade journals, but reputed top journals including BLOOD do accept tiff images even if made wid ppt.

As an editor-in-chief, editor of many journals, and having editor over 20 books of my own (http://pandi-perumal.blogspot.com); I would argue that professional graphic software will be best option. People who are familiar with powerpoint, word, Excel, or other mind mapping softwares can also be used to prepare scientific figures. if you happen to prepare them, cut and paste it in a powerpoint or convert the file into .pdf format, it will look nice. However, when it come to print, they are not good option due to poor quality. You have to use corel draw, illustrator, canvas, photoshop or other professionally available softwares for better quality.

I have firsthand experience in seeing the quality of image in printing. I would strongly advice to go for professional graphic softwares for the creation of images for publications/print.

Inkscape for 2D and Blender for 3D pictures.

Blender for animations

For instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RasemoYzsFA

I used to use Adobe Illustrator, but not now.

Errors occur that make saving images impossible

If you are comfortable with powerpoint (or Libreoffice Impress), you can also draw the  core graphics with it, then print it to PDF using software like cutePDF , PDFcreator etc., and Use GIMP or Inkscape only to make a TIFF/jpeg/whatever image with your chosen resolution. It looks cumbersome to say, but it is rather fast when you get used to that.

I would like to thank everyone that contributed to the answers.

I would also like to point out to FigureJ, an add on for imageJ that will let you assemble your panel in a great and simple way.

Use of inkscape software will be helpful in this regard.

It is free vector graphics software available for multiple platform where you can edit any kind of vector graphics content