How do I easily make gorgeous diagrams and graphs like these? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: incf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 12:55:51 am
content: As the title says "How do I easily make gorgeous diagrams and graphs like these?"They look significantly better than what any software I have can do with any reasonable amount of effort.https://sound-au.com/articles/hybrid-relays.htmedit: his FAQ says he uses "microsoft paint" ?I suppose I would like to rephrase my question to how can I match the quality of these diagrams using automated tools. LTSpice (and QSpice) are "okay but cumbersome" with custom symbols and graph annotations, Altium is fairly "meh" for this sort of documentation (never felt it's simulator mode/output was worth the effort/money/etc.). I feel like it's possible to do better.

author: Konkedout
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 02:05:26 am
content: Try KiCad?I am sure you could get some sample schematics and other drawings athttps://forum.kicad.info/

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 02:27:09 am
content: Drawing low-resolution pictures isn’t something KiCad is good at.The charts like that may be created using KiCad’s SPICE frontend. Perhaps it requires a bit of tweaking, the labels and legend are probably drawn by hand, but the general feel is about right.My go-to tool, if I need nice charts, isMatplotlib. RequiresPythonskills and its model may be non-intuitive, but fortunately it comes with a huge gallery of examples and can be used by the popular technique of copying code from StackOverflow. If I can’t be bothered to write code or already was doing calculations in a spreadsheet, I export the chart fromLibO Calc. My inner perfectionist screams in pain, but sometimes you just need to have the job done.Here’s an image I posted inanother thread, which shows Matplotlib charts (exported SPICE data) and KiCAD schematics:

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 02:29:51 am
content: The biggest thing is that you don't make publication quality figures without effort. Whatever tool you use you are going to have to spend time tweaking, adjusting. And takes practice to do it well and efficiently.It's likely that whatever you use for drawing schematics and plotting figures, you will want to do a pass in inkscape or Photoshop or other graphics editing tools.

author: special_K
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 03:04:32 am
content: Quote from: incf on February 01, 2025, 12:55:51 amWhy the question mark? Microsoft Paint has been included in Windows since the very first version in the 80s. Mr Elliott has drawn all the symbols he needs in it, then he copies and pastes them, rotates them, flips them etc until they face the direction and are in the position he wants.It's all by hand. Tedious by today's standards, but more flexible, and he's an old school guy. This is still a much faster and easier way than he would have originally learned to do, which would be to draw everything on paper with a pencil.

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 03:18:39 am
content: Schematics plotted to pdf from KiCAD look good. I spoke to a magazine publisher once about the same topic - they used Corel Draw and their own huge library of images.

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 03:29:29 am
content: You can make pretty diagrams with Microsoft Paint, and I've done so, but it takes many more hours than it might. It's about the same as programming in assembler rather than C++. Sure, you can do everything in assembler, but you would have to be a masochist to do it routinely.For nice diagrams you want a drawing program rather than a painting program. For example, Microsoft Visio, or maybe CorelDRAW (but I've never used it). CorelDRAW has a free trial option.

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 03:58:47 am
content: Another program to consider is splan from ABACOM. Here are some examples from the forum:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/advanced-desulfator-for-lead-acid-battery-resurrection/https://www.eevblog.com/forum/eda/which-software-might-have-been-used-to-draw-these-electronic-circuit-diagrams/msg5743709/#msg5743709I believe splan was used to created the schematics in the magazine Elektor -- at least in the past.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 08:12:21 am
content: If you want to use your own symbols (and draw them first), then Inkscape with a suitable grid and snapping options is quite powerful. The results are vector graphics, so sharp at any scale or resolution.Hereis one I've made.I often plot (KiCAD) or export (EasyEDA) the schematic as SVG, then finesse it in Inkscape.hereis an example of that.If one does not use filters, the result is directly convertible to PDF/PostScript, and thus publication quality, technology-wise.

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 10:15:09 am
content: Quote from: ejeffrey on February 01, 2025, 02:29:51 am^ This.I recommend inkscape.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/hughes-hcd125-capacitor-discharge-welder/https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/juntek-dpa-2698-10mhz-signal-amplifier-digilent-analog-discovery/msg3649978/#msg3649978

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 10:56:30 am
content: Quote from: special_K on February 01, 2025, 03:04:32 amRod is old school indeed!

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 11:29:43 am
content: QUCS, or QucsStudio (they are different) can draw a schematic, simulate it, and put the charts in the same page with the schematic. Then you print-screen or film it. For example (made with QucsStudio):Another free simulator that can put together the chart and the schematic is TinaTI (but without the live sliders). Or, you can draw the schematic with LTspice, simulate the results, then print-screen them together, or export/print-screen schematic and the plots individually, and stitch them together with a free image editor like Gimp.These are random examples from LTspice (pasted here fromsome other topic):Click to enlarge.Click to enlarge.Yet another option, if you prefer to draw your own waveforms rather then letting the simulator plot them for you, is gnuplot. This was done in gnuplot:Click to enlarge. (this plot is froma topic about batteries, if you go there and download the attached zip file, you can open the plot locally and inspect/zoom into data, turn traces on/off, etc)For math functions only (no schematic), there are also many online tools that can plot, for example GeoGebra. They can either export the plot, or they can host it for, and let you interact with the plot from your browser, like this one (click the link then drag the sliders):https://www.geogebra.org/m/ehkwndmaThese can also be embedded as live/interactive plots in somebody else's forum/blog/etc.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 11:49:03 am
content: Quote from: incf on February 01, 2025, 12:55:51 amI care more about function than form.In the case of schematics that means I don't care about line widths, fonts and similar, but I do care that the components and lines are positioned in a way that indicates the way the circuit operates.

author: timeandfrequency
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2025, 02:14:01 pm
content: hello incf,As@ledtesterunderscored,Splan8is a basic yetpowerfulelectronic CAD software.You can also use it as a general purpose 2D vector drawing software.Learning time : I would say 1 hourSee the schematics drawn with Splan byCyrob(in the list on the left, click on 'Electronique Montages').Video 'Cyrob : présentation sPlan8.0 d'Abacom' (engligh subtitles available)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrmqCNzE4Wk (edit the URL by removing the space characters)