Skip to main content

How to insert a printable background image in Excel?

When we insert a background with clicking Background button under Page Layout tab in Excel, the background is not printable, and you cannot view the background in print preview. Is it possible to print a background image in Excel? Yes, there is a special method to insert a printable background image in Excel.

Insert a printable background image in Excel with drawing a shape (8 steps)

Insert a printable background image in Excel with Kutools for Excel (3 steps)


arrow blue right bubble Insert a printable background image in Excel with drawing a shape

To finish this job, please do with the following steps one by one:

1. Click the Insert > Shapes, and select a rectangles shape, see the following screenshot:

doc-insert-printable-image1

2. Draw a shape as large as you need in active worksheet.

3. The Drawing Tools is active now, please click the Shape Fill button and fill the shape with white.

doc-insert-printable-image1

4. Click the Shape Outline button, and replace the outline color with white as well as following screenshot shown.

doc-insert-printable-image1

5. Then right click the shape, and select the Format Shape item from the context menu.

doc-insert-printable-image1

6. In the Format Picture dialog box in Excel 2010 or Format Picture pane in Excel 2013, please do the following operations:

doc-insert-printable-image1  In Excel 2010:
 (1.) Click Fill option from the left pane;

 (2.) Select the Picture or texture fill option;

 (3.) Click the File button to specify a image to fill this shape;

 (4.) Check the Tile picture as texture option;

 (5.) Change the Transparency to 75% as you need to
 make the background image like watermark.
doc-insert-printable-image1 In Excel 2013 and later versions:
(1.) Click Fill & Line button;

(2.) Under the Fill section:

   Select the Picture or texture fill option;

    Click the File button to specify a image to fill this shape;

   Check the Tile picture as texture option;

   Change the Transparency to 75% as you need to make
 the background image like watermark.

7. In the same dialog, then do the following operations:

doc-insert-printable-image1 In Excel 2010:
(1.) Click Properties option at left bar;

(2.) Select the Move and size with cells option in Object
 positioning section;

(3.) Check the Print Object option.

doc-insert-printable-image1 In Excel 2013 and later versions:
(1.) Click Size & Properties button;

(2.) Under the Properties section:

    Select the Move and size with cells option;

     Check the Print Object option.

8. Click Close button. Then the shape filled with pictures looks like a background image. What's more, it can be printed out when you print the active worksheet. See the following screenshot:

doc-insert-printable-image6

Note: After inserting this background picture, you will not be allowed enter any text within the picture range.


arrow blue right bubble Insert a printable background image in Excel with Kutools for Excel

The above method has its own limit that you can’t enter any text after inserting the background image, but, if you have Kutools for Excel, with its Insert Watermark feature, you can quickly insert the image or text watermark which can be printable as well as you need.

After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as follows:

Kutools for Excel : with more than 300 handy Excel add-ins, free to try with no limitation in 30 days

1. Go to the worksheet which you want to insert the printable background image, and click Kutools > Insert > Insert Watermark, see screenshot:

2. In the Insert Watermark dialog box, select Picture Watermark option, and click Select Picture button to select a picture that you want to insert as printable background, and then, specify the image scale or formatting as you need, see screenshot:

3. Then click Apply or Ok, and the selected image has been inserted into the worksheet background, when you print it, the background image will be printed as well. See screenshot:

doc-insert-printable-image17

Notes:

1. After inserting the watermark background, you can also type the text into the worksheet.

2. With this feature, you can also insert the text watermark as you need.

Download and free trial Kutools for Excel Now !


arrow blue right bubble Demo: Insert a printable background image in Excel with Kutools for Excel

Kutools for Excel: with more than 300 handy Excel add-ins, free to try with no limitation in 30 days. Download and free trial Now!

Best Office Productivity Tools

🤖 Kutools AI Aide: Revolutionize data analysis based on: Intelligent Execution   |  Generate Code  |  Create Custom Formulas  |  Analyze Data and Generate Charts  |  Invoke Kutools Functions
Popular Features: Find, Highlight or Identify Duplicates   |  Delete Blank Rows   |  Combine Columns or Cells without Losing Data   |   Round without Formula ...
Super Lookup: Multiple Criteria VLookup    Multiple Value VLookup  |   VLookup Across Multiple Sheets   |   Fuzzy Lookup ....
Advanced Drop-down List: Quickly Create Drop Down List   |  Dependent Drop Down List   |  Multi-select Drop Down List ....
Column Manager: Add a Specific Number of Columns  |  Move Columns  |  Toggle Visibility Status of Hidden Columns  |  Compare Ranges & Columns ...
Featured Features: Grid Focus   |  Design View   |   Big Formula Bar    Workbook & Sheet Manager   |  Resource Library (Auto Text)   |  Date Picker   |  Combine Worksheets   |  Encrypt/Decrypt Cells    Send Emails by List   |  Super Filter   |   Special Filter (filter bold/italic/strikethrough...) ...
Top 15 Toolsets12 Text Tools (Add Text, Remove Characters, ...)   |   50+ Chart Types (Gantt Chart, ...)   |   40+ Practical Formulas (Calculate age based on birthday, ...)   |   19 Insertion Tools (Insert QR Code, Insert Picture from Path, ...)   |   12 Conversion Tools (Numbers to Words, Currency Conversion, ...)   |   7 Merge & Split Tools (Advanced Combine Rows, Split Cells, ...)   |   ... and more

Supercharge Your Excel Skills with Kutools for Excel, and Experience Efficiency Like Never Before. Kutools for Excel Offers Over 300 Advanced Features to Boost Productivity and Save Time.  Click Here to Get The Feature You Need The Most...

Description


Office Tab Brings Tabbed interface to Office, and Make Your Work Much Easier

  • Enable tabbed editing and reading in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Visio and Project.
  • Open and create multiple documents in new tabs of the same window, rather than in new windows.
  • Increases your productivity by 50%, and reduces hundreds of mouse clicks for you every day!
Comments (37)
No ratings yet. Be the first to rate!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
It was very much helpful. Thanks a lot.
Kutools sets the image as a header. But If someone wants to add 2 image in the header then what to do? Would you please suggest.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi, Tareq
Yes, as you said, Kutools sets the image as a header, and it only can insert one picture each time.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
If you need the background strictly for printing purposes, I set the image as my background using typical methods. Set cells to no fill as necessary, then highlight everything that I am planning to print. Next I copy and paste in the same position except make sure to paste as an image. Now you can print all of your information with your background. If you need to edit something later, delete the image edit the data than repeat the procedure.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I have inserted my picture and it prints YAY! Now I need it to not obscure my text ie send it to the back. Is there a way to do that?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
The downside to this tool is that it doesn't seem to work like the Word watermark function that allows me to scale the image watermark. So I started over and opened the image in Photoshop to manually enlarge the image to scale it into Excel properly. That didn't work because Kutools scaled it back what it was prior to me enlarging the image manually. Not sure why this is done this way unless I'm missing a step whereby I can set the scale.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Many thanks.that was really helpful.I tried and it worked.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I have a solution: Just keep in excel format * .kls and open it in OpenOffice. Go to the Format / Page and select the image. After 3 hours of time various forums I found this solution, I'd be glad to someone else this solution help. Greetings from Serbia.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
[quote name="Goran from Serbia"]I have a solution: Just keep in excel format *.xls and open it in OpenOffice. Go to the Format / Page and select the image. After 3 hours of time various forums I found this solution, I'd be glad to someone else this solution help. Greetings from Serbia.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thx..a lot you taught me a lot..
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
You just drag and drop any picture in the Excel and fit it as required, when accept transparation!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
In step 7. I don't have the 'Properties' option. Can anyone help?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
now i know how to add a picture in the background but what do i do to insert a text in the backgroundthanks
There are no comments posted here yet
Load More
Please leave your comments in English
Posting as Guest
×
Rate this post:
0   Characters
Suggested Locations