Creating a JPG File from a Chart

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 14, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021


3

Madeleine has a worksheet that includes a number of charts. She needs to create a JPG file that contains one of those charts. She is looking for the best way to create a high-quality JPG from the chart.

There are actually a good number of ways you can perform this task. Before mentioning them, though, it should be mentioned that if you want "high quality," you may not want to use JPG. The reason is simple—JPG is considered a "lossy" file format. This means that when you save as JPG, some of your quality may be lost, depending on how compressed you choose to make the image file. Instead, seek to save your images in a "lossless" format, such as PNG or TIF. If you absolutely need to have the JPG format, you could always convert the PNG or TIF file to JPG, which means you then still have the higher-quality image file available for later use.

To save your chart in a graphics format (be it JPG or one of the others), one approach is to pass the image through either Word or PowerPoint. Follow these general steps:

  1. In Excel, click once on the chart you want to save as a JPG file.
  2. Press Ctrl+C. This copies the image to the Clipboard.
  3. Switch to Word or PowerPoint.
  4. Click the down-arrow next to the Paste tool on the Home tab of the ribbon.
  5. Choose Paste Special from the options presented. You'll see the Paste Special dialog box. (The dialog box is essentially the same in both Word and PowerPoint.)
  6. From the pasting options available, choose JPEG Picture (or an equivalent format).
  7. Click OK. This pastes the image into either the Word document or the PowerPoint slide.
  8. Right-click the picture you just pasted and choose Save As Picture from the options presented.
  9. Use the controls in the resulting dialog box to specify a location and fileame for the picture.
  10. Click Save to actually save the image.

You can also use the Snipping tool (an accessory available in Windows) to capture just about anything that appears on your screen. The advantage of this approach is that you are actually capturing the chart at the full resolution of what you see on your screen. You can find out more about the Snipping tool on this page:

https://windows.tips.net/T012558

To capture a larger version of your chart with the Snipping tool, you can adjust the zoom setting in Excel before actually doing the capture.

Another approach is to create a PDF of your chart. Assuming you have Adobe Acrobat on your system (you'll want to check; not everyone does), you can then load the PDF file and choose to export it as a JPG file. This produces an image that is just as high a quality as what you see when you look at the PDF file.

Of course, you could use other third-party graphics programs to get your chart into a graphics format. The steps are similar to those detailed earlier:

  1. Start a graphics program such as Paint, Irfanview, PhotoShop, or something similar.
  2. Switch back to Excel and display your chart as you normally would.
  3. Right-click the chart and choose Copy from the resulting Context menu. This copies the chart to the Clipboard.
  4. Switch to the graphics program.
  5. Press Ctrl+V to paste the chart into the graphics program.
  6. Save the image in your desired (JPG) format.

If you need to save your charts as graphics quite a bit, you might want to consider using a macro to do the exporting directly. Here's how you do it:

Sub SaveChartAsJPG()
    Dim sFileName As String

    sFileName = ThisWorkbook.Path & "\" & ActiveChart.Name & ".jpg"
    ActiveChart.Export Filename:=sFileName, FilterName:="JPG"
End Sub

This macro results in the currently selected chart being saved in the same folder in which the workbook is saved. If you decide you would rather save your chart in PNG format, then all you need to do is change "jpg" to "png" and "JPG" to "PNG".

For additional ideas about how to save your charts in a graphics format, you may be interested in this page:

https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/2013/08/27/save-excel-chart-as-image/

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (1775) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Sorting while Ignoring Leading Characters

Want to ignore some characters at the beginning of each cell when sorting? The easiest way is to simply create other ...

Discover More

Anchoring Comment Boxes in Desired Locations

Want your comment boxes to appear someplace other than the right side of a cell? You may be out of luck, and here's why.

Discover More

Keep Your Headings in View

Headings on a table are very important when it comes to understanding what is in the table. This tip explains an easy way ...

Discover More

Save Time and Supercharge Excel! Automate virtually any routine task and save yourself hours, days, maybe even weeks. Then, learn how to make Excel do things you thought were simply impossible! Mastering advanced Excel macros has never been easier. Check out Excel 2010 VBA and Macros today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Assigning Macros to Graphics

The graphics you place in a worksheet can do more than just look pretty. You can also assign macros to a graphic, which ...

Discover More

Creating an Organization Chart

Graphics are often added to worksheets to make it easier to understand the data contained in the worksheet. Sometimes, ...

Discover More

Grouping and Ungrouping Objects

When you add multiple graphic objects in a worksheet, it can often be beneficial to group those objects together. Here's ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 6 - 0?

2023-01-14 18:55:54

Tomek

J. Woolley:
Option Save as Picture is indeed available in 365 (I don't know about earlier versions), but to get it on context menu you must select the whole chart ***only***, not including any of its elements. It is easy to miss.
Make sure to click close to the frame of the graph. It works for both embedded graphs and those on separate Graph sheets.

Which brings interesting, albeit somewhat academic, question: If you scale the embedded graph beyond what is visible on screen (say 3 screens high and two screens wide), do you get better resolution?
The answer is yes, but beware - the titles and labels may need re-sizing before saving to be readable.


2023-01-14 18:30:41

Tomek

Beware that sometimes pasting images into Word or PowerPoint reduces the quality of the picture. To avoid Fuzzy images in Word or PowerPoint Options - Advanced - in section Image Size and Quality - check the option Do not compress images in file. Alternatively set the Default resolution to High fidelity or whatever highest option is available on your machine. Or just to be sure do both. (see Figure 1 below)

Figure 1. 


2023-01-14 10:21:45

J. Woolley

When I right-click a chart on a worksheet (in Excel 365), one of the choices is "Save as Picture..." which makes it easy to save in any of the typical graphic formats.


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.