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SmartDraw seems nice but is not free.
Circuit Lab was way easier to use, but I could not even rotate the "current source" arrow to point in the upward direction
Circuitikz involves typing in coordinates, which is more inconvenient than dragging and dropping icons.

Is there a free software (preferably an online editor but ok if it is not) that is good for making circuit diagrams?

Nike Dattani
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I use Irfanview to copy an image or screen save then paste crop ... edit. It supports every media format. F10 has a toolbar, It also supports all Adobe addons. Very fast and easy after learning it.

Then paste to Open Office Writer then file> Export to PDF

But you may want scaleable vector graphics for zoom quality. However you can compress in Irfanview a 4k image down to 1%

Tony Stewart EE75
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  • Note that if you do a screen grab you will get a bitmap image. Even if you copy into OOW and then export as PDF the image will not be a scalable graphic...it's just a bitmap in a PDF container. – Elliot Alderson Jun 30 '18 at 19:12
  • OP was looking for a schematic capture tool not image conversion to PDF. You should check in to a free Windows PDF printer driver such as PDFill. It may save you the copy and paste into Writer. Irfanview is not free, not everyone is retired or wants to be a pirate. FastStone's Image Viewer is feature rich and true freeware. – Misunderstood Jul 01 '18 at 02:30
  • Wrong again. read the title. It implies needs schematic capture and needs to convert to save to PDF. Irfanview has always been free and the fastest thumbnail generator for a folder with 1000 images does macro edits on a folder and better for me than FS. Quit being wrong and inflammatory . Pirate? which planet ? – Tony Stewart EE75 Jul 01 '18 at 02:44
  • But then some better schematic capture tools do PDF so disregard if that applies to your tool of choice. But I agree KiKad is better than some examples suggest so far http://www.openhardwarehub.com/assets/projects/steps/364/original/kicad-4.jpg?1318104493 – Tony Stewart EE75 Jul 01 '18 at 02:55
  • for pdf you really want something that produces vector images, not millions of blurry pixels like you get from a screen-grab. – Jasen Слава Україні Jul 01 '18 at 10:05
  • I agree but depends on content for screen resolution like 2Mpix or 12Mpix (4k) and compressed to file size limits. Sometimes it can be adequate but less than ideal – Tony Stewart EE75 Jul 01 '18 at 16:39
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Use Dia!

It's free and available on Linux and Windows. It's like MS-Visio, but as mentioned free. You can search google for additional libraries - there are a plenty of it to find. Here is the link: Dia homepage.

On this page you can download shapes:

Here are some screenshots:

enter image description here

enter image description here

abu_bua
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    Really, use a proper schematic editor like KiCad. They all have export/printing to PDF – Marcus Müller Jun 30 '18 at 08:08
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    It's a general purpose diagram tool. I've worked with dia; it's really not something you want to use even with modestly complex schematics. And the way your first picture looks pretty much is proof of that: symbols of inconsistent scaling, wildly different line widths, non-proper connectors, the fact that you'd need to set junction dots manually … Microsoft word can export PDF all the same, and it's not a schematic tool, either. – Marcus Müller Jun 30 '18 at 10:17
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    then Dia is still not the tool of choice. It's a slow AND bad way of drawing schematics. (guess what: schematic editors are made for people who want to be fast at drawing schematics) – Marcus Müller Jun 30 '18 at 10:25
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    If anything, the two schematics you've shown above would be declined. I assure you, you can make high-quality schematics with tools like KiCad faster. If writing a paper, you're not aiming "for a quick schematic", anyway. I've done publication-quality schematics in both kicad and circuitikz. Dia wouldn't be the software of choice – I mean, look at your own examples. – Marcus Müller Jun 30 '18 at 11:43
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    and, no, it's not a matter of taste, by the way. Schematics are standardized. The sizes of your inverter circles in your second example, the gray color, the relative sizes of components and junction dots are all subject to unambiguous international standards (and you really don't want to know how your example fares against these!). – Marcus Müller Jun 30 '18 at 11:46
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    Can you provide a citation or other evidence to back up your claim that IEEE will reject schematics drawn in Kicad? I've never had IEEE question a high-quality schematic, regardless of how created. – Elliot Alderson Jun 30 '18 at 19:04
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    @abu_bua that doesn't answer the question at all; you're literally the only one claiming that schematics from schematic capture software like KiCad are bad; so you're the one who should probably point out in which way Kicad etc conflict with ISSC rules. And I'm sure that neither of your examples fulfill strict requirements for circuits. – Marcus Müller Jun 30 '18 at 20:32
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    @abu_bua don't print pretty circuit diagrams. They do. . Sorry, further in most cases the circuits involves much more devices than it is useful to demonstrate the function of the circuit. so don't add them to your schematic. Therefore, i uses ms viso, and dia is very similar to it. I appreciate that, but I still don't think it's a good choice or your argument against the alternatives are valid. – Marcus Müller Jun 30 '18 at 20:45
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    @MarcusMüller tell us what you really think of Dia!. – Misunderstood Jul 01 '18 at 02:16
  • Those Dot sizes were made for military 60's vintage microfiche and zoom restore. – Tony Stewart EE75 Jul 01 '18 at 02:50