PNG to XLSX Converter for Scanned Tables
A ledger page, a printed price list or a lab sheet that went through a scanner as PNG can become a working .xlsx file. This page is set up for paper: it straightens the scan, follows the printed grid lines and stores amounts as numbers you can calculate with.
Image to Excel
or drop PDF, JPG, JPEG … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Ruled lines works best for tables with visible borders; whitespace for tables where columns are only separated by gaps, like bank statements.
When the image holds more than one table, put each on its own sheet or stack them on one sheet with a blank row between.
How decimals are written in the picture. 1,234.56 uses a dot; 1.234,56 (common in Europe and Latin America) uses a comma.
Comma is standard. Use semicolon for Excel in countries that write decimals with a comma.
UTF-8 with BOM makes Excel on Windows show accents and non-Latin text correctly when you double-click the file.
Scanned PDF only: the pages that contain the table, e.g. 2 or 2-4. Leave empty for all pages.
How to use this tool
- 1
Scan and upload
Scan the page at 300 DPI if you can and upload the PNG. Up to 20 files of up to 95 MB each fit in one run.
- 2
Confirm number handling
Store numbers as numbers is on. If the document writes decimals as 1.234,56, set Decimal separator to Comma rather than leaving it on Auto.
- 3
Recognize text
Press Recognize text and open the .xlsx in Excel or Google Sheets. Sum one column and compare it with the printed total.
Straighten the scan
A page fed in at a slight angle is rotated so rows run level.
Follow the printed grid
Ruled lines uses the drawn borders to find every cell.
Type each value
Amounts, percentages and dates become numeric cells.
Convert a scanned table from PNG to XLSX
A scanner gives table recognition a fair start: even lighting and a flat page. What it does not guarantee is a straight page. Even a 1 or 2 degree tilt shifts the bottom rows by a whole line across a wide table, which is why Straighten image stays on here. Printed tables also tend to have visible borders, so this page sets Table style to Ruled lines, which treats every drawn line as a cell boundary and copes with cells that hold two lines of text.
The .xlsx format, the Office Open XML workbook introduced with Excel 2007 and standardized as ECMA-376 and ISO/IEC 29500, stores each cell with a type. That type is the difference between a useful file and a picture of numbers: a cell typed as number can be summed, a cell typed as text cannot, even if both show 1,250.00.
How printed values land in XLSX cells
| Printed on the page | Stored in the .xlsx | Check |
|---|---|---|
| $1,250.00 | 1250 as a number | Currency symbol and thousands separator removed from the value |
| 12.5% | 0.125 as a percentage | Displays as 12.5%, calculates as 0.125 |
| 1.234,56 | 1234.56 as a number | Set Decimal separator to Comma if Auto guesses wrong |
| 03/07/2024 | A date value | Confirm month and day order |
| 00421 | 421, or 00421 as text with numbers off | Turn the option off for codes and IDs |
Before you trust the spreadsheet
- Sum one column and compare it with the printed total
- Look for left-aligned figures, which are text
- Check every date with a day under 13
- Search for O typed instead of 0 and l instead of 1
- Confirm merged title cells did not swallow a column
- Keep the original scan next to the file
Scan settings that decide accuracy
Scan in grayscale rather than pure black and white. A hard black and white threshold can break thin strokes in light print, turning an 8 into a 3, while grayscale keeps them for the recognizer to judge. Save as PNG rather than JPG, since JPG blurs character edges.
Remove staples and flatten folded corners, and lay bound ledgers so the gutter does not curve the rows near the spine. Our guide on how to scan documents to PDF covers scanner and phone settings in more detail, and the same advice applies to PNG.
PNG to XLSX questions
What scan resolution gives the most accurate PNG to XLSX result?
300 DPI is the reliable middle ground for printed tables: small digits get enough pixels without huge files. Use 400 DPI for very small print such as footnoted financial tables. Below 200 DPI, digits like 3, 5, 6 and 8 start to blur together.
Why do some numbers stay left-aligned as text in Excel?
Excel left-aligns text and right-aligns numbers, so left-aligned figures were stored as text. Usually a stray character such as a footnote mark, an asterisk or a handwritten tick sits in the cell. Remove it and use Data > Text to Columns or multiply by 1 to turn the column into numbers.
What happens to account numbers longer than 15 digits?
Excel keeps only 15 significant digits in a number, so a 16-digit card or account number stored as a number loses its last digit, which becomes 0. Turn off Store numbers as numbers for documents built around long IDs; they are then kept exactly as text.
Will dates from the scan become real Excel dates?
Dates written clearly are stored as date values, which Excel keeps as serial numbers counted from 1 January 1900. Check ambiguous ones such as 03/07/2024, which means March 7 in the US and 3 July in most other countries.
Can I convert a multi-page scanned PDF instead of PNG?
Yes. The same converter takes scanned PDFs; use PDF pages to pick the pages that hold the table. For PDFs with real, selectable text, PDF to Excel reads the text directly and skips recognition.
Does PNG to XLSX keep the table's bold header and merged titles?
Detect header row makes the first row bold column titles, and Keep merged cells keeps a title spanning several columns merged. Fonts, colors and cell shading from the paper are not copied.
