You can create quite nice looking figures just using Powerpoint or Excel. For more sophisticated graphs you use Adobe Illustrator or a mathematical software that allows you create precise graphs but that not what youre after. Here are a few examples created in Powerpoint To create a figure Insert New Slide with Layout Blank. Use the Shapes icon to select lines with arrow head geometric shapes or Curves etc. Use the Shift key as you draw to make the lines snap to exactly horizontal vertical or diagonal. To draw a curve use the Curve shape draw a rough curve (end with double click) then click on the curve and right-click to select Edit Points. Now move the anchor points and their handles to give the curve the exact shape you want. Work with as few anchor points as possible to get the smoothest curve just extend and move the handles to get the result you want. When you add some math notation Insert Equation or use a Text Box and manually set variables and functions in italics italic while numbers and operators in upright (roman) font to make it look as it should. Finally select all objects right click and Save as Picture. Choose picture Type PDF or png from the dropdown list to get best resolution. Copying and using Rotation and Rotation Options can save a lot of tedious formatting as in the following figure (also created in Powerpoint) To get functions to look realisticeven if the specific numerical values are irrelevantusing Excel can be more effective. The following example illustrates different cost curves in economics. To create it define a few functions and generate a table of their values for a bunch of x italic -values (output). Then use (X Y) Scatter Graph with Smooth Lines. If the numerical values are irrelevant chose Axis Format Labels None. Adding Text Boxes and Shapes (such as the small circles at the intersections of the curves) can help illustrate things. Now select (click on) the outermost frame of the graph then right-click to Save as Picture. Choose picture Type PDF or png from the dropdown list to get line-graph level resolution. N.B. I am not suggesting one should use Powerpoint or Excel to produce professional-level (i.e. publication ready) graphs. The question was about nice looking graphs for a student or possibly for teaching purposes. I hope this is useful.