How to Download a Graph from Excel

Getting a chart out of Excel sounds simple, but choosing the right way to do it can be the difference between a blurry, unprofessional image and a crisp, presentation-ready graphic. This guide walks you through the best methods for downloading your Excel graphs, from quick copy-pastes to high-quality image files, making sure your data always looks its best wherever you share it.

The Easiest Method: Copy and Paste

The fastest way to move a chart from Excel to another application like PowerPoint, Word, or an email is the classic copy and paste. However, there's more to pasting than you might think, and the option you choose has a big impact on your final chart.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Click once on your chart in Excel to select it. Make sure you click on the outer edge or a blank area of the chart, not a specific element like a single bar or a legend entry. You'll know it's selected when you see a border around the entire chart object.
2. Copy the chart using your preferred method:
3. Navigate to your destination application (e.g., a PowerPoint slide or a Word document).
4. Click where you want the chart to go. Now, instead of just pressing Ctrl + V, right-click to see the Paste Options. This is where the magic happens.

Understanding Your Paste Options

When you right-click to paste, you'll see several icons, each representing a different way to paste your chart. The most important ones to understand are those for creating a linked chart vs. a static picture.

Option 1: Pasting a Linked Chart

The icons that look like they have a small chain link or say "Use Destination Theme & Link Data" or "Keep Source Formatting & Link Data" create a live link back to your original Excel file.

• What it does: This method embeds the chart in your document, but it also maintains a connection to the source Excel spreadsheet. If you update the numbers in your Excel file, the chart in your PowerPoint or Word document will update automatically.
• Pros: A huge time-saver for recurring reports. You only have to update one file (the Excel sheet), and all your reports and presentations stay current.
• Cons: If you move, rename, or delete the original Excel file, the link will break, and the chart will no longer update. It can also cause issues if you send the presentation to someone who doesn't have access to the source Excel file.

Option 2: Pasting as a Picture

The icon that looks like a small picture or says "Picture" does exactly what it sounds like: it pastes a static image of your chart.

• What it does: This method essentially takes a high-quality screenshot of your chart at the moment you copied it and embeds that image into your document. It has no connection to the original Excel file.
• Pros: The chart is completely self-contained and stable. You can send the file to anyone, and they will see the chart exactly as you intended. It won't break if the source data file is moved or deleted.
• Cons: The chart will never update if you change the data in Excel. If you need to make a change, you have to delete the old image and paste in a new one. The image quality can also degrade if you try to make it much larger than its original size.

For most one-off presentations or documents, pasting as a Picture is the safest and most reliable option.

The Best Quality Method: Save Your Graph as an Image File

If you need a standalone file of your graph - to upload to a website, insert into design software, or attach to an email - the best method is to save it directly as an image. This gives you complete control over the file type and quality.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. In Excel, click on the chart you want to download.
2. Right-click on the chart's border. Be sure you’re clicking the outer edge, not an internal element.
3. From the context menu, select "Save as Picture..."
4. A "Save As" dialog box will appear. Here you can name your file, choose where to save it, and - most importantly - select the file type from the "Save as type" dropdown menu.

Choosing the Right Image Format (and Why It Matters)

Excel gives you several image formats to choose from. Picking the right one is crucial for getting a high-quality result. Here’s a breakdown of the best choices for charts:

• PNG (Portable Network Graphics): This is usually the best all-around choice for charts. PNG files use "lossless" compression, meaning a chart saved as a PNG will have sharp text and crisp lines without any blurry artifacts. It also supports transparency, which is great if you want to place your chart over a colored background in a presentation or on a website.
• SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics): This is the highest-quality option available. An SVG isn't based on pixels like a PNG or JPEG, it's based on mathematical vectors. This means you can scale it to any size - from a tiny icon to a massive billboard - and it will never lose quality or become blurry.
• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): This format is optimized for photographs, not graphics with sharp lines and text. JPEGs use "lossy" compression to achieve smaller file sizes, but this often creates noticeable blurriness and jagged edges around the text and lines in a chart.
• GIF (Graphics Interchange Format): While known for animations, GIF is an older image format with a limited color palette (only 256 colors). Most modern Excel charts use gradients and a wider range of colors, which will look bad when converted to GIF.

Alternative Methods for Special Cases

Sometimes, the standard methods aren't quite what you need. Here are a couple of other ways to get a chart out of Excel.

Using a Screenshot Tool

For a quick, informal share, a screenshot can be the fastest solution. All modern operating systems have a built-in tool for this.

On Windows, the easiest way is using the Snip & Sketch tool. Press Windows Key + Shift + S, and your screen will dim. You can then click and drag a box around your chart to capture it. The image is automatically copied to your clipboard, ready to be pasted into a chat, email, or document.

On a Mac, you can press Command + Shift + 4, then click and drag to capture a portion of your screen.

Note: This method is fast but produces a lower-resolution image dependent on your screen's resolution. It's great for internal communication but not recommended for formal presentations or high-quality reports.

Saving the Entire Sheet as a PDF

If your chart is part of a larger report within a single Excel tab, saving that tab as a PDF can be a great way to share everything in a clean, universal format.

1. Navigate to the spreadsheet tab containing your chart.
2. Go to File > Save As.
3. From the "Save as type" dropdown, select PDF.
4. Before saving, click "Options..." and ensure you've selected "Active sheet(s)" to save just the current view.
5. The resulting PDF will contain a vector version of your chart, which means it will be high-quality and easy to read.

Pro Tips for Professional-Looking Graphs

Exporting your chart is only half the battle. Making sure it’s clean and professional before you export it makes all the difference.

• Declutter Your Chart: Get rid of anything that doesn't add value. Remove unnecessary gridlines, borders, or backgrounds. Does your chart really need a legend if you have a single data series? Simplify it to focus on the story your data is telling.
• Write a Clear, Descriptive Title: Replace the generic "Chart Title" with something meaningful. Instead of "Sales," use "Q3 Sales Performance vs. Q2 (by Region)."
• Format Your Axes: Ensure your axes are properly labeled so viewers know what they're looking at. If you’re dealing with large numbers, format them to be more readable (e.g., "$50k" instead of "$50,000.00").
• Mind Your Colors and Fonts: Use a consistent, professional color scheme - ideally your brand's colors. Avoid the default Excel rainbow palette. Also, increase the default font size. What looks fine in Excel often becomes too small to read once pasted into a PowerPoint slide.

Final Thoughts

Pulling your charts out of Excel is a key part of sharing your data story, and a few simple steps can dramatically improve the professionalism of your work. Whether you use a quick copy and paste or save a high-quality SVG file, choosing the right method for your needs ensures your insights come across clearly and effectively.

The entire process of building, formatting, and exporting charts - especially when pulling data from different sales and marketing platforms - can take up hours every week. Instead of manually exporting CSVs and fighting with pivot tables, we built Graphed to automate that work. You can connect your data sources in a few clicks and build real-time, interactive dashboards just by describing what you want to see, giving you back the time to focus on strategy instead of report-building.