Tools for diagrams like MSDN magazine (Architect's Journal)

Question

I'm searching for tools for creating diagrams (illustrations) for my articles in my blog about software architecture. Often I read Microsoft Architect's Journal and illustrations at this magazine are very beautiful and comprehensive. Can you help me - what tools are used to create such diagrams ? Thanks !

Answer 1

I've had a quick look through the online version, it looks like its pretty much all done it the MSOffice products,Visio, Powerpoint, some excel for charts and data plus some bits are grabs straight from VS2010.

Answer 2

You may be interested in Umbrello for software diagrams. For general flowcharting there's Dia or OpenOffice Draw. For more general vector illustration there's Inkscape. All of these programs are free software.