Scientific journals have explicit requirements for the submission of figures: Most commonly they require high-resolution TIFF files. Using Excel with the XL Toolbox add-in, you can produce graphic files that meet the requirements of many journals.

Features at a glance

File formats TIFF, PNG, EMF
Color models RGB, CMYK
Resolution 100-1200 dpi
Transparency No transparency, transparent canvas, white is transparent

Layouting and batch processing

You can choose to export either a single diagram (or any other drawing in your workbook), or an arrangement of charts and/or drawings. Simply select what you want to export, and the XL Toolbox will preserve the layout.

If you have multiple graphs and want to export each of them individually, use the Batch Export feature.

Single export

Set the target size for export:

Single high-resolution export

Presets

Save your favorite export settings as presets:

Export presets

Screenshot-quality export

An alternative to the high-resolution graphic export is the screenshot-quality export:

Screenshot export

This is better suited for graphs that you want to use in digital media, e.g. in e-mails or presentations. One important difference between screenshot-quality export and high-resolution export is that the former produces ‘anti-aliased’ images where ragged lines are made smooth by interpolating with shades of gray (and other hues). The high-resolution export does not use anti-aliasing, so that text may appear ragged when zoomed in on screen. However, for printing on paper, this mode is preferable.

Limitations

Pattern fills are currently not supported. Patterns are not scaled; therefore, if you export bar graphs with pattern fills at a high resolution, the pattern will still be there, but it will be extremely small. Support for patterns is still planned for a future version, but is technically extremely challenging. (Also, my personal opinion is that if you need lots of different patterns – or lots of different colors, for that matter – you should think about whether the graph could not benefit from reducing the amount of information displayed at once.)