WHY THE NEED ? In my experiences this usually dictates the layout technique-articles will usually redrawn by the publisher anyway. You've no doubt seen mags. saying " even schematics on the back of an envelope may be acceptable" !
For much draft work & educational handouts etc almost any drawing program will do- Windows "Paint" or even the graphics editor in "Word" etc. The choice often boils down to your platform, preference & ability to put in the learning time. CadSoft's EAGLE ( Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor) is certainly versatile (running on Win,Linux & Mac) but the learning curve may be too steep for your simple 18X needs. In the past I've pointed the likes of cash strapped students with old clunker PCs to such classics as the mid '90s Paint Shop Pro & MGI PhotoSuite SE (Starter Edition) etc. These -gasp!- W95 beauties are now so ancient that copyright issues are usually "incidental". Photo editing software that comes with many digital cameras & scanners etc can often be quite suitable.
IMHO a particularly important electronic need however relates to the program's ability to easily elaborate on the layout. Suitable text comments can typically relate to component ID & pinouts,polarities, supply voltages, power ratings etc- all the sort of boring (but confidence boosting) info. that those low in experience often REALLY need shown to help ensure a circuit will work. I'm a bit of a fanatic about this, having tasted the agony of defeat myself (preteen) due to circuitry assumptions that "everybody knows". Of course you all want to know just what these were!! I shudder to recall, but they arose due to my thinking the trimmers on a variable tuning capacitor were the screw terminals! It was some time later before a kindly "elmer" pointed out the blunder (& incidently got me fired up seriously).
Given the abundance now of digital cameras, circuit layouts often really justify a picture along with the schematic. Us old hands tend to forget symbols are often inconsistent with the component size - even a lo-tech. toggle switch may be physically huge, & need placing in an unusual position for operator convenience.
EXTRA: Check the 20M screen grab below - recently drawn by MGI PhotoSuite SE software that came with my first Sanyo digital camera (1997).
