PNG to Excel – Turn an Image Table into a Sheet
Turning a PNG into Excel means reading the numbers out of the image and rebuilding them as real cells, which is optical character recognition rather than file conversion. The good news is that Excel and Google Sheets both have this built in for free, and for a clean screenshot the accuracy is very high.
Can this be done in the browser?
Not directly. Extracting numbers from an image requires OCR, which is a different technology from image conversion and cannot run reliably in a browser tool. The free built-in methods below work well — and ExamFo can sharpen or resize your screenshot first, which measurably improves OCR accuracy.
PNG to Excel – Turn an Image Table into a Sheet — What You Need to Know
Turning a PNG into Excel means reading the numbers out of the image and rebuilding them as real cells, which is optical character recognition rather than file conversion. The good news is that Excel and Google Sheets both have this built in for free, and for a clean screenshot the accuracy is very high.
Covers png to excel, png to excel converter, image table to spreadsheet, and OCR for screenshots of tables.
How to PNG to Excel Step by Step
- Start with the sharpest image you have: a screenshot beats a photo of a screen every time. If it is a photo, crop it tight and straighten it.
- Use Excel's built-in OCR: In Excel, Data → From Picture → Picture From File. Excel reads the table and shows a preview you can correct.
- Or use Google Sheets: Upload the PNG to Google Drive, right-click → Open with Google Docs. Docs runs OCR and extracts the text, which you paste into Sheets.
- Or use the mobile app: The Excel mobile app has Insert Data from Picture, which handles photos of printed tables well.
- Always verify the numbers: OCR reliably confuses 0 with O, 1 with l, and 5 with S. Check every column before you use the data.
- Fix the columns: If everything lands in one column, use Data → Text to Columns to split it correctly.
Specifications
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Input format | PNG, JPG, screenshot |
| Output format | XLSX, editable cells |
| Technology | OCR (optical character recognition) |
| Free built-in tools | Excel Data from Picture, Google Docs OCR, Excel mobile app |
| Best source | Clean screenshot, high contrast, straight |
| Typical accuracy | 95%+ on screenshots, lower on photos |
| Common OCR errors | 0 vs O, 1 vs l, 5 vs S, 8 vs B |
| What ExamFo does | Sharpens, crops and resizes the image before OCR |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I convert PNG to Excel for free?
Yes. Excel's own Data → From Picture feature does it at no extra cost, and Google Docs OCR is free as well.
Why are some numbers wrong after conversion?
OCR guesses characters from shapes, so visually similar ones get swapped — most often 0 and O, or 1 and l. Always proofread the extracted numbers.
Does it work with handwritten tables?
Poorly. OCR is trained mainly on printed text; handwriting accuracy drops sharply and is usually not worth the correction time.
What image quality do I need?
A screenshot at native resolution is ideal. Photos of a screen introduce glare, skew and moire, all of which hurt accuracy badly.
Can ExamFo do the OCR?
No, but preparing the image with ExamFo — cropping tight and raising sharpness — noticeably improves the accuracy of whichever OCR tool you use.
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