What software is recommended for graphic design and integration with LaTeX?

[waxranger]

Hi folks,

I'm looking for a solid program to design graphics like pendulums for oscillation tasks etc. I would like to integrate them in LaTeX afterwards.

Can somebody recommend me some software you find useful? Maybe Illustrator?

Thanks,
Fab

 

[Kurdt]

Illustrator would do I suppose since you can make vector images with it.

 

[f95toli]

Inkscape works quite well and is free. It is not as advanced as Illustrator but works well for simple illustrations.

 

[waxranger]

much appreciated!

thanks

 

[sirgus]

Hello all!
I am a new member here and I would like to ask you something.

I am teaching Physics in Greece and I would like to have a program to create some schemes as easy as possible.

I would like something better than MS paint but something easier than corel or illustrator if possible.

Here you have some examples attached

Once you suggest me a program, do you think that I can find a library of cliparts with objects like the ones you see? (arrows,springs,pulleys etc)

Thanks in advance

 

[sirgus]

Well, just decided to use smartdraw!
It's very good with lot of cliparts.

The only negative is that I can't find any clipart showing springs.

Any idea where to find?

 

[Danger]

You could do what I do, but it requires some patience. Whenever I needed something like a spring or a drill bit, which takes a long time to draw, I stashed a copy into a separate Illustrator file called 'weird ****'. Next time that I needed one, I'd just copy the original into my new project and rescale/reorient it to suit the purpose. It's a relatively simple and painless way to build up a fairly impressive library of components.
Unfortunately, I can't access it since W dumped a coffee into my iBook. The new MacBook won't run my Illustrator anyhow, so now I'm starting over with Inkscape.