ExcelPic: Convert Excel Ranges to Images with Ease

Welcome to ExcelPic! This tool simplifies the process of converting parts of Excel files into images, perfect for presentations, documentation, or sharing on social media. Whether you need a snapshot of your latest data analysis or want to include Excel visuals in your reports, ExcelPic has you covered.

Features:

• Ease of Use: Convert Excel ranges or entire sheets to images through a simple command-line interface.
• Flexible: Choose specific sheets or ranges to convert, or export the entire sheet.
• Non-intrusive: Runs in the background without displaying Excel or interrupting your workflow.
• Safe: Closes all COM objects gracefully, ensuring no Excel processes hang in the background.
• Windows Native Operations: Based on the Excel2img script, this code avoids the reliance on Pillow and screenshots. All image capture is done through scripting and COM operations.
• Supports single Workbook connection: To make the best use of I/O resources, a single workbook connection can be passed in and maintained, or a string path can be passed in and ExcelPic will take care of resource management.

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.8 or greater (although it's probably fine to use older versions...)
• Windows OS (due to reliance on COM API)
• win32com.client, imgkit libraries installed
• wkhtmltoimg installed and on path for imgkit.

Installation:

1. Clone this repository or download the source code.
2. Install the required Python libraries:

pip install pypiwin32 imgkit

Usage:

To use ExcelPic, navigate to the directory containing the script and run:

Python:

1. Converting an entire Excel file to an image:

from excelpic import excelpic

# provide the path to your excel file and the desired output image filename
excel_path = 'path.xlsx'
output_image = 'output_image.png'

# Call the function to perform the conversion
excelpic(excel_path, output_image)

2. Converting a specific sheet and range within an Excel file:

from excelpic import excelpic

# Define paths and parameters
excel_path = 'path.xlsx'
output_image = 'output_specific.png'
sheet_name = 'Sheet1'
range_spec = 'B2:F20'
imgkit_params = {"format": "png", "quality": 100, "zoom": 4}

# Perform the conversion with specific sheet and range
excelpic(excel_path, output_image, page = sheet_name, _range = range_spec, imgkit_params = imgkit_params)

3. Passing in an existing workbook connection and keeping the connection open.

xlApp = win32.Dispatch("Excel.Application")
wb = xlApp.Workbooks.Open("workbook.xlsx")

# The existing workbook connection can be used
excelpic(wb, "image_location.png")

# The existing workbook connection is still active
wb.save()
wb.close()

xlApp.Quit()

Command Line:

python excelpic.py excel_filename image_filename [options]

Command Line Arguments

• excel_filename: The path to the Excel file you want to process.
• image_filename: The name and path for the output image file.
• -p, --page: Optional. Specify the Excel sheet by name. If not provided, the first sheet is used.
• -r, --range: Optional. Specify the Excel range in A1 notation. If not provided, the entire used range is selected.

Examples:

Convert the entire first sheet to an image:

python excelpic.py example.xlsx example.png

Convert a specific range from a specific sheet:

python excelpic.py example.xlsx example.png -p Sheet1 -r A1:U8

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

ExcelPic is designed to be a straightforward, powerful tool for converting Excel data into more shareable formats. Try it out today and streamline how you share your Excel insights!