Save a chart as a picture

You can quickly copy your chart to another application, or save it as a separate image file.

1. Click the chart that you want to save as a picture.

2. Choose Copy from the ribbon, or press CTRL+C on your keyboard .

3. Switch to the application you want to copy the chart to. If you're saving as a separate image file open your favorite graphics editor, such as Microsoft Paint.

4. Place your cursor where you want the chart to appear, then select Paste from the ribbon, or press CTRL+V on your keyboard.

If you've pasted your chart into a graphics editor to save as a separate image file, use File > Save to save it as a new file.

Tip: If you find that there's a lot of unwanted whitespace around your chart, you can use your graphics editor's cropping tool to remove it.

Choosing a graphics file format

If you're saving the chart as a new image file, you'll need to select a format for the file. Here are some of the most popular choices.

File format	What it means
Device Independent Bitmap (.bmp)	Graphics created in one program are displayed in another program exactly the way they appeared 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.

See Also

Copy an Excel chart to another Office application