From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of
diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer
simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

"JM" <sunaecoNoChoppedPork@gmail.com> wrote in message news:9e3s7lhh563jr745f26j5ul613ehps34nh@4ax.com...

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of
diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

I used affinity not long ago to edit a product label for a local company.
It wasn't too hard to get it to do what I wanted but I didn't have to
create a new complex diagram from scratch.

Depending on the type of diagram you want there's also Visio which
is not officially free but I don't think Microsoft care any more as long
as you're not a big business user of many copies.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 8/13/2026 11:48 AM, JM wrote:

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

A lot depends on how complex the diagrams will be and how much
you will need to tweak your work while creating them.

E.g., ideally, you want to build a diagram out of "drawing objects"
and not just "FLATTENED marks on paper". The former allows you to
process those objects even after they have been placed (e.g., to
move them, resize them, change color/typeface, etc.) The latter
is like using a whiteboard -- tomake a change, you have to carefully
erase the old (while not disturbing anything that was drawn over or
under it!) and redrawing anew.

Where possible, I like to rely on photographs that I can annotate
with callouts, highlights, etc. (easier to get things right!). In
the past, when getting photographs wasn't convenient, I would build
3D models of the object in question and manipulate it virtually
(e.g., with a motion controller).

If the thing being drawn is a physical device, I like to use CAD as it
lets me define relationships between the various parts of the drawing
in "real units" instead of eyeballing things (e.g., "this part is
10" long and it connects to a 7" long member at a 60 degree angle"
is a lot easier to get right than trying to do that freehand). One
of the first things I do in any place I've lived is make a detailed
floorplan -- easy with a ruler and CAD! For a freestanding device,
SfM gies you a quickie way to build a 3D model that is likely good
enough for illustration (and has the added benefit of being rendered photorealistically!)

For certain *types* of drawings, you can find tools that are
designed with those concerns in mind. E.g., when I am documenting
state machines, I need to move things such that connections are
maintained (rubber-banding).

For graphs and other content that is mathematically defined, I use
tools that will render those relationships *for* me.

Having said these things, I use:
- Adobe Illustrator
- CorelDesigner
- Adobe Photoshop
- Corel PHOTO-PAINT
- gnuplot
- Mathematica
- FontLab (to create "fonts")
- Metashape (SfM)

Note all of these predate cloud hosting. I have no idea what's available
in current offerings.

Consider, also, addressing annotations "above" the notion of the illustration (i.e., in the publishing tool). This lets you map the typeface to that
used in the rest of the document, better (I've embedded Mathematic charts
in publications and the difference in "fonts" stands out noticeably.)

It also lets you scale and translate the drawing without also affecting
the annotations that may be *in* the drawing.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Thu, 13 Aug 2026 19:48:12 +0100, JM
<sunaecoNoChoppedPork@gmail.com> wrote:

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of >diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer >simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

Use Word! You can drag-and-drop pics into a document. And export a
PDF.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

"john larkin" <jl@htigct.com> wrote in message news:jj9s7ll3fnd76mdg5cnn4vc6t4s0qna0mu@4ax.com...

On Thu, 13 Aug 2026 19:48:12 +0100, JM
<sunaecoNoChoppedPork@gmail.com> wrote:

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of >>diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer >>simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

Use Word! You can drag-and-drop pics into a document. And export a
PDF.

I sometimes draw on paper and scan it.
Then I don't have to fight the computer for exactly how I want it drawn.


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:21:19 -0400, "Edward Rawde"
<invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

"john larkin" <jl@htigct.com> wrote in message news:jj9s7ll3fnd76mdg5cnn4vc6t4s0qna0mu@4ax.com...

On Thu, 13 Aug 2026 19:48:12 +0100, JM
<sunaecoNoChoppedPork@gmail.com> wrote:

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of >>>diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer >>>simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their >>>vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

Use Word! You can drag-and-drop pics into a document. And export a
PDF.

I sometimes draw on paper and scan it.
Then I don't have to fight the computer for exactly how I want it drawn.

Yes, we do that, and put pics of whiteboards in docs. But Certain
Parties think that stuff that customers should see, should look more
grown-up.

I use Visio for some figures. One can also screen cap LT Spice
screens, or sheets of a schematic; all our schematics have a sheet 1
block diagram.

Photos of the hardware are good in manuals too.

My guys use some AI thing to tweak photos. Change text, change
connector types, remove dust.


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

JM <sunaecoNoChoppedPork@gmail.com> wrote:

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

Do you want diagrams as 'code' or draw them in a GUI?

For the 'code' approach, TikZ is popular these days. You may find an addon package that draws just the kind of diagram you want, in which case it
should be easy to get 'something', and harder to get exactly what you want (just like Latex really). If you have a lot of diagrams of a similar type
this might be the way to go, but if you need to hand edit them it can get a
bit annoying. eg CircuiTikZ is a package for drawing schematics.

There are tools which let you edit the source code on one side and
continually recompile it so you can see the output on the other side - eg
this is a web app:
https://tikzmaker.com/
Overleaf is a similar idea for whole documents.

For the 'drawing' approach, I've used Inkscape and have it emit PDFs which
you can \includegraphics. It's free and open source. It uses SVG natively
and I think some versions of Latex can import SVG, but PDF is less finnicky. It works similarly to Adobe Illustrator and other vector drawing packages.

There's some tools which will emit both a diagram file and a Latex file with the text. These are nice in that the text is in a matching font and size to your body text. I think matplotlib / PGFPlots does that, but that's more
for graphs than arbitrary figures. I'm sure I came across a flow for doing that for general drawings, but I can't remember where it was.

Theo
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:58:42 -0700, Don Y
<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:

On 8/13/2026 11:48 AM, JM wrote:

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of
diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer
simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

A lot depends on how complex the diagrams will be and how much
you will need to tweak your work while creating them.

E.g., ideally, you want to build a diagram out of "drawing objects"
and not just "FLATTENED marks on paper". The former allows you to
process those objects even after they have been placed (e.g., to
move them, resize them, change color/typeface, etc.) The latter
is like using a whiteboard -- tomake a change, you have to carefully
erase the old (while not disturbing anything that was drawn over or
under it!) and redrawing anew.

Absolutely, but I think all drawing software now works like that.

Where possible, I like to rely on photographs that I can annotate
with callouts, highlights, etc. (easier to get things right!). In
the past, when getting photographs wasn't convenient, I would build
3D models of the object in question and manipulate it virtually
(e.g., with a motion controller).

If the thing being drawn is a physical device, I like to use CAD as it
lets me define relationships between the various parts of the drawing
in "real units" instead of eyeballing things (e.g., "this part is
10" long and it connects to a 7" long member at a 60 degree angle"
is a lot easier to get right than trying to do that freehand). One
of the first things I do in any place I've lived is make a detailed
floorplan -- easy with a ruler and CAD! For a freestanding device,
SfM gies you a quickie way to build a 3D model that is likely good
enough for illustration (and has the added benefit of being rendered >photorealistically!)

For certain *types* of drawings, you can find tools that are
designed with those concerns in mind. E.g., when I am documenting
state machines, I need to move things such that connections are
maintained (rubber-banding).

For graphs and other content that is mathematically defined, I use
tools that will render those relationships *for* me.

Having said these things, I use:
- Adobe Illustrator
- CorelDesigner
- Adobe Photoshop
- Corel PHOTO-PAINT
- gnuplot
- Mathematica
- FontLab (to create "fonts")
- Metashape (SfM)

Note all of these predate cloud hosting. I have no idea what's available
in current offerings.

Consider, also, addressing annotations "above" the notion of the illustration >(i.e., in the publishing tool). This lets you map the typeface to that
used in the rest of the document, better (I've embedded Mathematic charts
in publications and the difference in "fonts" stands out noticeably.)

Yes, that's what I'm looking for. lpe does that, and I see the
inkscape can also do this.

It also lets you scale and translate the drawing without also affecting
the annotations that may be *in* the drawing.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 13 Aug 2026 23:47:01 +0100 (BST), Theo
<theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

JM <sunaecoNoChoppedPork@gmail.com> wrote:

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of
diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer
simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

Do you want diagrams as 'code' or draw them in a GUI?

I would like to draw them.

For the 'code' approach, TikZ is popular these days. You may find an addon >package that draws just the kind of diagram you want, in which case it
should be easy to get 'something', and harder to get exactly what you want

Yes, I see that TikZ has (as I understand it) taken over from PicTeX
and PStricks. I have been browsing CTAN and don't recognise 99% of
the packages - but it's good that LaTeX is still so popular.

(just like Latex really). If you have a lot of diagrams of a similar type >this might be the way to go, but if you need to hand edit them it can get a >bit annoying. eg CircuiTikZ is a package for drawing schematics.

There are tools which let you edit the source code on one side and >continually recompile it so you can see the output on the other side - eg >this is a web app:
https://tikzmaker.com/
Overleaf is a similar idea for whole documents.

For the 'drawing' approach, I've used Inkscape and have it emit PDFs which >you can \includegraphics. It's free and open source. It uses SVG natively >and I think some versions of Latex can import SVG, but PDF is less finnicky. >It works similarly to Adobe Illustrator and other vector drawing packages.

There's some tools which will emit both a diagram file and a Latex file with >the text. These are nice in that the text is in a matching font and size to >your body text. I think matplotlib / PGFPlots does that, but that's more
for graphs than arbitrary figures. I'm sure I came across a flow for doing >that for general drawings, but I can't remember where it was.

Thanks for the Inkscape pointer, I see that it has a PDF+latex save
option, which does exactly what you describe, and is the sort of thing
I was after.

There's a short demo of it in this youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXBmq2M4ii0

Last time I tried Inkscape it was very buggy (but that was on windows)
but I'll give it another go.

Theo

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Thu, 13 Aug 2026 13:20:38 -0700, john larkin <jl@htigct.com> wrote:

Use Word! You can drag-and-drop pics into a document. And export a
PDF.

Time is money, so I try and use the best tool(s) for the job in hand.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:07:10 -0400, "Edward Rawde"
<invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

I used affinity not long ago to edit a product label for a local company.
It wasn't too hard to get it to do what I wanted but I didn't have to
create a new complex diagram from scratch.

I'm going to give it a try, maybe not for this work, but it does seem
to be a no brainer give it a go.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 14/08/2026 17:57, JM wrote:

On 13 Aug 2026 23:47:01 +0100 (BST), Theo
<theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

JM <sunaecoNoChoppedPork@gmail.com> wrote:

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of
diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer
simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

Do you want diagrams as 'code' or draw them in a GUI?

I would like to draw them.

For the 'code' approach, TikZ is popular these days. You may find an addon >> package that draws just the kind of diagram you want, in which case it
should be easy to get 'something', and harder to get exactly what you want

Yes, I see that TikZ has (as I understand it) taken over from PicTeX
and PStricks. I have been browsing CTAN and don't recognise 99% of
the packages - but it's good that LaTeX is still so popular.

(just like Latex really). If you have a lot of diagrams of a similar type >> this might be the way to go, but if you need to hand edit them it can get a >> bit annoying. eg CircuiTikZ is a package for drawing schematics.

There are tools which let you edit the source code on one side and
continually recompile it so you can see the output on the other side - eg
this is a web app:
https://tikzmaker.com/
Overleaf is a similar idea for whole documents.

For the 'drawing' approach, I've used Inkscape and have it emit PDFs which >> you can \includegraphics. It's free and open source. It uses SVG natively >> and I think some versions of Latex can import SVG, but PDF is less finnicky. >> It works similarly to Adobe Illustrator and other vector drawing packages. >>
There's some tools which will emit both a diagram file and a Latex file with >> the text. These are nice in that the text is in a matching font and size to >> your body text. I think matplotlib / PGFPlots does that, but that's more
for graphs than arbitrary figures. I'm sure I came across a flow for doing >> that for general drawings, but I can't remember where it was.

Thanks for the Inkscape pointer, I see that it has a PDF+latex save
option, which does exactly what you describe, and is the sort of thing
I was after.

There's a short demo of it in this youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXBmq2M4ii0

Last time I tried Inkscape it was very buggy (but that was on windows)
but I'll give it another go.

Theo

Whenever I have tried to do something slightly unusual and tried
a variety of packages (that might be easier to use) I always ended up
using either inkscape or GIMP depending on whether it was a bitmapped
or vector requirement.
John

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 8/14/2026 9:57 AM, JM wrote:

A lot depends on how complex the diagrams will be and how much
you will need to tweak your work while creating them.

E.g., ideally, you want to build a diagram out of "drawing objects"
and not just "FLATTENED marks on paper". The former allows you to
process those objects even after they have been placed (e.g., to
move them, resize them, change color/typeface, etc.) The latter
is like using a whiteboard -- tomake a change, you have to carefully
erase the old (while not disturbing anything that was drawn over or
under it!) and redrawing anew.

Absolutely, but I think all drawing software now works like that.

This actually can make your job *harder* as it isn't always easy
to "pick" which object you want to interact with -- when objects are
located close together. E.g., a text object inside a circle object
may be tedious to access as the circle may grab the focus, instead.
This because the pick/select tool isn't selective. You may have
to "lock" one object in order to keep it from being selected as you
try to pick another nearby/within.

[If the program behaves like this, you will discover it rather
quickly]

Where possible, I like to rely on photographs that I can annotate
with callouts, highlights, etc. (easier to get things right!). In
the past, when getting photographs wasn't convenient, I would build
3D models of the object in question and manipulate it virtually
(e.g., with a motion controller).

Photographs also have the advantage of giving you an opportunity
to bring large splashes of color into a document. This *really*
dresses it up -- moreso that colored line segments, etc.

For certain *types* of drawings, you can find tools that are
designed with those concerns in mind. E.g., when I am documenting
state machines, I need to move things such that connections are
maintained (rubber-banding).

For graphs and other content that is mathematically defined, I use
tools that will render those relationships *for* me.

Having said these things, I use:
- Adobe Illustrator
- CorelDesigner
- Adobe Photoshop
- Corel PHOTO-PAINT
- gnuplot
- Mathematica
- FontLab (to create "fonts")
- Metashape (SfM)

The Adobe tools have the hidden advantage that you can edit the
text representation of the drawings as it is usually something
like embedded postscript. So, if you wanted the ends of
several linesegments to begin at the same "X" position on
the page, you can manually tweek those values in the drawing's
representation because you often can't position the mouse cursor
in exactly the same location when drawing another object.

[Support for various "snap" modes -- like snap to grid -- is a
big win. Snap to quadrant, snap to nearest, etc.]

Note all of these predate cloud hosting. I have no idea what's available
in current offerings.

Consider, also, addressing annotations "above" the notion of the illustration
(i.e., in the publishing tool). This lets you map the typeface to that
used in the rest of the document, better (I've embedded Mathematic charts
in publications and the difference in "fonts" stands out noticeably.)

Yes, that's what I'm looking for. lpe does that, and I see the
inkscape can also do this.

If so, then you want to avoid making those annotations in the
drawing itself.

You might also want to consider if the tool you select supports things
like footnotes and cross references. I find that I use both mechanisms
heavily as it lets me take annecdotal text out of the body of the document
yet keep it available to the reader.

I also use color as an aid to myself in verifying that I have
tagged specific text/paragraphs with the correct style tags.
E.g., foreign words like /etc/, /ibid/, /et al./ should
always be italicized. But, you can manually apply italics to
selected text. *OR*, you can create a text style "foreign"
and apply that, instead. In the latter case, you can change how "foreign"-tagged text is presented simply by changing the style
definition. In the former case, you have to go through and manually change/remove the italics that was applied.

[E.g., I have a style tag for "special terms", figure names,
table names, etc. So, I can extract a glossary (special terms)
or list of figures, etc. from the document, automatically.]
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 8/14/2026 12:27 PM, John R Walliker wrote:

Whenever I have tried to do something slightly unusual and tried
a variety of packages (that might be easier to use) I always ended up
using either inkscape or GIMP depending on whether it was a bitmapped
or vector requirement.

Knowing what tools can do and their representations is a big
asset.

When I had to create the default templates for my gesture recognizer,
I relied on Illustrator to actually "compose" them as I could
ensure certain desirable geometric relationships that I couldn't
guarantee freehand (e.g., that the top of a '2' was exactly as
wide as the bottom).

Then, extracted the representation of the drawing from the
.AI file to create an all-bezier representation for my software.
Then, rendered these in gnuplot to be imported to the user manual.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 8/13/26 20:07, Edward Rawde wrote:

"JM" <sunaecoNoChoppedPork@gmail.com> wrote in message news:9e3s7lhh563jr745f26j5ul613ehps34nh@4ax.com...

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of
diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer
simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

I used affinity not long ago to edit a product label for a local company.
It wasn't too hard to get it to do what I wanted but I didn't have to
create a new complex diagram from scratch.

Depending on the type of diagram you want there's also Visio which
is not officially free but I don't think Microsoft care any more as long
as you're not a big business user of many copies.

Used Visio for some years, an older version from
Ebay. However, Libre Office, (from Cern, os
agnostic: linux, windows and more, has a good
drawing package which will import Visio and other
formats for re editing.

Small learning curve, but worth the effort.

Chris

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Sat, 15 Aug 2026 14:36:01 +0100, chrisq <syseng@gfsys.co.uk> wrote:

On 8/13/26 20:07, Edward Rawde wrote:

"JM" <sunaecoNoChoppedPork@gmail.com> wrote in message news:9e3s7lhh563jr745f26j5ul613ehps34nh@4ax.com...

I have to create some technical documents which will require lots of
diagrams. I've always used LaTeX for this kind of work (are the newer
simpler markup tools up to the job?).

I've used Xfig a lot in the past to create diagrams but am looking
about to see if there are better options.

I've seen lpe which looks to be quite good (especially when the
diagram will contain text) - does anyone use this?

Now that affinity is free perhaps that would be a good option (their
vector studio - formerly "designer") for text free diagrams. Maybe
the learning curve is to steep.

I used affinity not long ago to edit a product label for a local company.
It wasn't too hard to get it to do what I wanted but I didn't have to
create a new complex diagram from scratch.

Depending on the type of diagram you want there's also Visio which
is not officially free but I don't think Microsoft care any more as long
as you're not a big business user of many copies.

Used Visio for some years, an older version from
Ebay. However, Libre Office, (from Cern, os
agnostic: linux, windows and more, has a good
drawing package which will import Visio and other
formats for re editing.

Small learning curve, but worth the effort.

Chris

Anyone who suggests word will have a spell cast upon them..

I also use an old Visio. It's OK and if you export an EMF file, it
does very nice line work in a Word doc.

I have a sheet of electronic symbols if anyone is interested.

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