blog posts

The best free software for drawing flowcharts (Flowchart) for Windows, are you familiar with free software for drawing flowcharts and diagrams and do you know what capabilities and features these programs have?

Designing and drawing graphs is not only the work of engineers, programmers and managers, but anyone can benefit from learning how to draw and design graphs and use them, in fact, using graphs is the best and easiest way to show statistics and Changes are a business and profession. In fact, the use of flowcharts and diagrams makes it easier for the audience to understand the concepts. But the problem that exists for many people is drawing and designing flowcharts. Fortunately, today, due to the existence of free flowchart drawing software, this task has become easier. Now the question that arises is, what are the best free software for drawing flowcharts for Windows?

In response, it should be said that there are different software for designing and drawing all kinds of diagrams, each of which has its own capabilities. But if you intend to use the best free software for drawing flowcharts for Windows, we suggest you to continue with us to get to know 7 free software for designing and drawing diagrams and flowcharts for Windows.

What is a flowchart?

Algorithms have complexities different and the implementation code of each may be short or long and include complex instructions. Used to better understand algorithm programming and how it can be Flowchart works. A flowchart is a graphic representation of the process of a program and consists of a set of can that conventional   shapes be to   used draw commands in order and the process of an algorithm simplify . Drawing a flowchart is related to before starting programming and does not depend on the type of programming language . Flowcharts play an important role in determining the process of executing commands and determining the input and output of the program.

What are the important symbols in drawing a flowchart?

We said that to draw a flowchart, we use a set of conventional shapes, each of which has a role in displaying different commands of a program. We introduce some examples of the most prominent flowchart symbols in this section:

• Terminator: which defines the beginning and end of the process and is as an oval shown . Each flowchart has a terminator for the start and one for the end.
• Process: in the form of a rectangle , which is used to display normal commands such as calculation and assignment commands.
• Decision: Decision is to establish a condition and is with a rhombus shown . This stage has two different outputs depending on the condition response.
• Input (Data): Inputs are shown as parallelograms .
• Document: A curved quadrilateral is used to display the output and the final report.
• Reference to the program (On-Page Reference): It is displayed in the form of a circle with a letter inside it, and it means the end of this step in this flowchart and the need to continue it in another flowchart.
• Delay or wait: in the form of a semi-ellipse , which means waiting and interrupting the process.

A practical example of converting an algorithm to a flowchart

Flowcharts can depict program logic and identify challenging parts of the program. It’s time to practically know what a flowchart is, and for that reason, in this section, we will learn how to draw a flowchart with some simple examples. Of course, a flowchart can be drawn in different ways to make the problem easier for the programmer.

A program that prints Hello World 10 times

1. Sharia process
2. To implement the loop command, we first consider a variable and give it the value 0.
3. Then we print the expression.
4. We add one unit to the counter variable.
5. We check if the new value of the counter is less than 10 or not. If it was less, we go to step 3, otherwise to step 6.
6. the end

A program that allows the user to log into the Facebook user account.

1. Start the process
2. Login to the Facebook site
3. Go to home page
4. Enter email and password
5. Checking the condition: If the entered information is correct, the user can enter his profile. Otherwise, return to step 4 with an error message.
6. End of program

Introducing online tools for drawing flowcharts

The first and easiest way to draw a flowchart is to draw your problem by hand. But if you need special tools to do your exercises and have a neat design, the following sites can get you up and running in no time. These sites are free and you can use them easily

Introducing the top 7 free software for drawing flowcharts for Windows

As mentioned, there are many free programs and software for designing and drawing flowcharts, each of which has its own capabilities. In the following, we are going to introduce you to the top 7 software for drawing different types of graphs.

1- Dia software

This software is one of the best and most prominent free software for drawing flowcharts. This software is very powerful and very easy to work with. If you are looking for the best alternative software for Microsoft Visio, Dia free software is undoubtedly the best choice for you. Among the features and highlights of Dia software, the following can be mentioned:

• Simple and intuitive user interface.
• Dozens of standard shapes including UML, circuit and database.
• Apply custom shape using XML and SVG.
• Customize the color of shapes and texts.

Free download: Die software

2- yEd Graph Editor software

yEd Graph Editor free software is an excellent software for drawing and displaying all kinds of graphs, tree graphs, network graphs and other things. You can download the program as a JAR or EXE file. This software also has its own features, which we will introduce you to some of them.

• Drawing a variety of quality and professional flowcharts.
• Automatic drawing of chart elements in order.
• Basic and orthogonal routing of edges for joints.
• Multiple file saving methods including PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF.

Free download: yEd Graph Editor software

3- ThinkComposer software

Another free flowchart drawing software for Windows is ThinkComposer. In fact, this software is mostly used for professionals. Using this software, you can draw and design a variety of flowcharts, business charts, class charts, family trees, timelines, and more. But the reality of working with this software is that it is hard to work with and you have to spend a lot of time on it. The following are the prominent features of the ThinkComposer program:

• Create custom and reusable nodes and connections.
• Creating deep and multi-level diagrams to visually express ideas.
• Ability to combine and merge several charts with each other.
• Create PDF, XPS and HTML reports based on your data and information.
• Ability to develop and update the program.

Free download: ThinkComposer software

4- Pencil Project software

This software is one of the old programs for drawing all kinds of graphs, which was produced for the first time in 2015, and in 2019, its updated version was released again. Working with this software is very convenient and easy, and you can easily draw and create the graphs you want. Pencil Project software has its own capabilities and features that we will introduce you to later.

• The presence of various built-in forms for drawing diagrams and interfaces.
• You can create your own shapes and use other people’s shapes as well.
• Ability to save files as PNG, SVG, PDF and HTML.
• Using charts and graphs in org.

Free download: Pencil Project software

5- LibreOffice Draw software

LibreOffice Draw is probably the best free alternative to Microsoft Office for word processing. Spreadsheets, presentations and visual charts are only part of the capabilities of this software. You can easily add shapes, symbols, lines, connections, text, images, and more with this app. Other features of this software include the following:

• The possibility of customizing the size of pages to draw all kinds of charts.
• The existence of a map of the work surface makes it easy to draw various diagrams.
• The existence of advanced and professional tools including 3D controller.
• You can open the file as Microsoft Visio, but it is not possible to save it.

Free download: LibreOffice Draw software

6- Diagram Designer software

Another of the best free flowchart drawing software for Windows is Diagram Designer software. This software is very suitable for beginners. Note that Diagram Designer works very well on Windows 10. The salient features of this program can be mentioned below.

• Drawing all kinds of diagrams is easy and convenient.
• The possibility of saving files as PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, ICO and many others.

Free download: Diagram Designer software

7- PlantUML free software

Using this software, you use the PlantUML programming language instead of using a graphical interface to draw diagrams. This program is very suitable for programmers who do not like working with the mouse. You need Java program to install this program in your system. Among the features of this software, the following can be mentioned.

• Defining objects and connections using the PlantUML programming language.
• Drawing different types of diagrams such as: sequence, use case, class, Gantt.
• Ability to save files as PNG, SVG and LaTeX.

Free download: PlantUML software