
Here is a simple to trick to beat the 56 color limitation in excel when you are designing a chart: use picture files (jpg, gif, png etc.) to fill the chart area.
You will no longer have to worry about limiting your project report / website / annual report etc. colors to the 56 that excel has.
1 + 3 steps to get more colors in excel charts:
- First create a 1*1 pixel sized image of the color you want to use in excel. You can use any software like MS Paintbrush to do this, all you need is the hex code or rgb of the color you want. Visit colour lovers if you are looking for cool color ideas.
- Right click on any of your chart data points and select format data point
- In the dialog select “fill effects”
- Finally, go to “Picture” tab in fill effects and specify your picture file path.

OK your changes. Thats all, now your charts have any color your want.
Also: Download 73 beautiful excel chart templates | Art of excel charting | Become a conditional formatting pro
- Tags: charts, excel, hacks, how to, ideas, interesting, learn, microsoft, spreadsheet, technology, tips, tricks, visualization
Do you like this post? Consider subscribing to my newsletter, every weekday I will send you one email with hot excel tips, technology tidbits or business insights that can make you more productive. Each mail will have unsubscribe link so you can stop receiving the mails at any time you wish.
Share some love, add this to Stumble
Get my Feed, its yummy
3 Responses
Jon Peltier
April 19th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
1Another way to color the bars or columns in a chart is to draw a rectangle in the sheet (make it larger than the bar it will be used to format). Double click the rectangle to open the Format Autoshape dialog. Format the shape to have no line, and under fill color, choose More Colors, and define the color you want. When done, copy the rectangle, select the series of columns (bars) or the specific column (bar), and use Ctrl+V to paste the shape.
Thermometer charts in excel - cool visualization trick | Pointy Haired Dilbert - Chandoo.org
June 26th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
2[...] This is the simplest part. We will create a thermometer outline by drawing a circle and a rounded rectangle. See the illustration to the right to understand. Next we will fill the circle with our favorite color. Not that excel presents us with may choices, but I choose the light green, the kind that you see on the Starbucks small size cups. Oh btw, learn how to tweak excel chart color limitation to add your own colors. [...]
Ally S
July 4th, 2008 at 8:57 am
3Er… Isn’t it much easier than this? Why don’t you just change the default colour options in Excel? Tools > Options > Color > Modify… And just change the RGB values of the default colours! Isn’t that much better?
RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI
Leave a reply
Welcome :)
Quick Facts
I am Chandoo, when I started this blog in 2004, the purpose was to post snapshots from hell to share my b-school life with world.
Today this blog has over 600 articles in topics like Excel, Business, Advertising, Technology, Photography and Life in Indian B-schools.
Interested? Know more or mail me at: chandoo [dot] d [at] gmail [dot] com
Recent Comments
Categories
Recently PHD wrote
Monthly Archives
Category-wise Archives
Blogroll
PHD Link Love
Hungry for Spam
Disclaimer