Excel: Chart Copies in Black and White by Default

SUMMARY

When you hold down the SHIFT key and choose Copy Picture from the Edit menu to copy a chart as a picture, Microsoft Excel versions 2.20 and 3.00 present Appearance and Size options to copy the chart with, either As Shown On Screen or As Shown When Printed. By default, Excel copies the chart with the size as shown on the screen and the appearance as shown when printed. If you have not chosen Print Using Color in Excel's Print dialog box (on the File menu), and you copy the chart using the default settings, the chart will be copied in black and white.

To have Excel copy a chart in color, use one of the following methods:

Method 1

1. From the File menu, choose Print.

2. In the Print dialog box, select Print Using Color and Print Preview. Click OK. In Print Preview, click Cancel.

3. Hold down the SHIFT key and choose Copy Picture from the Edit menu.

4. Paste the picture into the appropriate document.

Method 2

1. With the chart displayed in color, hold down the SHIFT key and choose Copy Picture from the Edit menu.

2. In the Copy Picture dialog box, select As Shown On Screen under Appearance.

3. Paste the picture into the appropriate document.

MORE INFORMATION

By default, Excel copies a chart with Appearance As Shown When Printed to increase the readability of the output from the application the chart is pasted into. When Excel prints to a black-and-white printing device, it maps colors to patterns, and makes special allowances for the way colors are handled by black-and-white printers. Copying an Excel chart in color and then printing it to a black-and-white printer from another application may result in poor printing quality, as the other application will not be able to map the colors to patterns, or optimize the chart for printing in black and white.