How to save Excel charts as image

Excel is one of the most common platforms for creating charts. In this guide, we’re going to show you how to save Excel charts as an image.

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We will introduce you to three different methods of saving charts. Let's start.

Save as Picture

The simplest way of saving an Excel chart as image is to right-click on the chart and select Save as Picture.

Excel allows you to save your chart in 6 different image formats.

File format	What it means
Device Independent Bitmap (.bmp)	Graphics created in one program are displayed in another program exactly the way they appear in the original program.
Graphics Interchange Format (.gif)	Supports 256 colors and no image data is lost when the file is compressed.
JPEG File Interchange Format (.jpg)	Best used for pictures with many colors, such as scanned photos.
Portable Network Graphics Format (.png)	Improves the quality of graphics on a web site because parts of the image can be transparent, and brightness can be controlled.
Tag Image File Format (.tif)	Usually used in the publishing and printing industry.
Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg)	It's a XML based two-dimensional graphic file format for sharing graphics contents on the Internet.

Copy and Paste Method

You can save any Excel chart as image by simply copying and pasting. For this, you need an image editing software like Paint. Here are the steps:

Select your Excel chart.
Press Ctrl + C, or right-click and select Copy.
Open an image software (e.g. Paint) and create an empty work area if necessary.
Press Ctrl + V, or right-click and select Paste.
After copying, save the file in the format you want.

Copy and paste to Word or PowerPoint

If your intention is to send your chart to another Office application, the process is slightly different than just copying. If you simply copy your chart into another Office software, like Word or PowerPoint, you will see your chart like a regular image. However, with integration between Office applications, each application can render charts dynamically. This means that if the data in Excel is updated, the chart will be updated as well. If your want to copy the chart as a static image, do not use Ctrl + V. Instead, right-click on the target app and select the Picture icon to save the Excel chart as image.

Save Excel charts as image in bulk

If your Excel file contains multiple charts and you don't want to save them individually, here is an approach for converting them all at once: You need to save your Excel file as a Web Page.

Click the File tab in the Ribbon.
Activate Save As.
Select the file type as Web Page (*.htm, *.html).
Click Save.
Once the file is saved, open the folder. You will see a subfolder with your file name. Inside the subfolder you can see the image files for your images.