How to Make a Curved Graph in Excel
Creating a perfectly smooth, curved line in an Excel chart can make your data look more professional and easier to interpret, especially when you're showing a trend over time. Instead of sharp, jagged angles between data points, a gentle curve can highlight the overall pattern in your data. This guide will walk you through exactly how to create a curved graph in Excel using two simple methods, plus how to customize it to fit your brand or presentation.
First, What Exactly Is a Curved Graph?
In Excel, a "curved graph" is typically a smoothed line chart. It’s a line graph where the line connecting the data points is a smooth curve instead of a series of straight, angular lines. This type of visualization is excellent for showing general trends, like sales growth over a year or website traffic fluctuations over several months.
The main difference between a standard line chart and a smoothed one comes down to emphasis:
A standard line chart with sharp angles is great for showing precise, individual data points and emphasizing the change from one point to the next.
A smoothed, curved line chart is better for visualizing the overall flow and direction of the data, de-emphasizing the precise day-to-day or month-to-month volatility.
They’re both useful, but choosing the curved version can make your trend data feel less frantic and more focused on the bigger picture.
Setting Up Your Data for Success
Before you even think about creating a chart, your data needs to be structured correctly. For a curved graph showing a trend, you'll need at least two columns. Think of them as your (X, Y) coordinates:
Column A (your X-axis): This will be your horizontal axis. It usually represents time, like day, month, quarter, or year. Make sure these are in chronological order.
Column B (your Y-axis): This will be your vertical axis. It represents the metric you are measuring, such as sales revenue, website sessions, new subscribers, or store visits.
Let's use a simple example of monthly sales data for a small business. Your spreadsheet should look something like this:
A...........BMonth.......SalesJan.........$1,200Feb.........$1,500Mar.........$1,450Apr.........$1,800May.........$2,100Jun.........$2,500Jul.........$2,300Aug.........$2,800Sep.........$3,100Oct.........$2,950Nov.........$3,500Dec.........$4,200
With your data organized like this, Excel can easily understand how to plot the points before we turn it into a beautiful curve.
Method 1: The 'Scatter with Smooth Lines' Chart
This is often the best and most reliable way to create a curved graph directly. The Scatter chart type is specifically designed for plotting numeric X and Y data and gives you great options for visualization, including smooth lines.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Select Your Data: Click and drag your cursor to highlight all the cells containing your data, including the headers ("Month" and "Sales").
Navigate to the Insert Tab: At the top of the Excel ribbon, click on the Insert tab.
Find the Charts Group: Look for the "Charts" section. From here, click the icon that looks like a series of dots, which is the Insert Scatter (X, Y) or Bubble Chart option.
Choose the Right Chart Type: A dropdown menu will appear with several chart options. Hover over the different choices to see a preview. Select Scatter with Smooth Lines and Markers or Scatter with Smooth Lines. The choice is yours:
With Markers: This option will display a small dot on each individual data point. This is helpful if you want to emphasize both the overall trend and the specific value for each month.
Without Markers: This option gives you just the clean, curved line. Use this if you only want to show the general trend without calling attention to the individual months.
Excel will instantly generate the curved graph on your worksheet. It's that simple! From here, you can move on to customizing its appearance.
Method 2: Smoothing a Standard Line Chart
What if you’ve already created a standard line chart and want to convert it into a curved one? No problem. Excel has a built-in "smoothed line" option you can enable with just a couple of clicks.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Create a Standard Line Chart: If you don't already have one, select your data, go to the Insert tab, and click the Insert Line or Area Chart icon (the one with lines running across it). Choose one of the 2D Line options, like Line with Markers.
Select the Data Series: Click directly on the line in your chart. This will select the entire data series, and you should see small circles appear on each data point.
Open the Format Pane: With the line selected, right-click on it and choose Format Data Series from the context menu. This will open a "Format Data Series" pane on the right side of your Excel window.
Activate the Smoothed Line Option: In the Format Data Series pane, click on the paint bucket icon, which is labeled Fill & Line. At the very bottom of this panel, you'll see a checkbox labeled Smoothed line. Check that box.
As soon as you check the box, Excel will transform the jagged line into a smooth, elegant curve.
Customizing Your Curved Graph for a Professional Look
A default Excel chart is a good start, but a few small tweaks can make your graph significantly more readable and polished. After creating your curved line chart, click on it to reveal a green ‘+’ icon on the top right.
Add a Clear Title and Axis Labels
A chart without labels is just a guessing game for your audience. Click the '+' icon next to the chart and check the boxes for Chart Title and Axis Titles.
Double-click on "Chart Title" to add a descriptive title like "Monthly Sales Performance for 2023."
Double-click the axis titles to label them. For our example, the Y-axis would be "Sales ($)" and the X-axis would be "Month."
Adjust the Line Color and Thickness
Match your brand colors or make the line stand out. Right-click your curved line, select Format Data Series, go to the paint bucket (Fill & Line) tab.
Color: Use the dropdown to choose a new color for your line.
Width: Increase the width to make the line thicker and more prominent. A 2.5 pt or 3 pt width often looks good.
Modify or Remove Data Markers
If you chose a chart with markers (the dots), you can customize them too. In the same Format Data Series pane under the paint bucket icon, click on Marker.
Under "Marker Options," you can change the marker type (circle, square, diamond), increase its size, or remove it entirely by selecting "None."
You can also change the "Fill" and "Border" colors of the markers to have them stand apart from the line itself.
Clean Up the Gridlines and Legend
Finally, reduce visual clutter. Again, use the green '+' icon. You can uncheck Gridlines to remove them for a minimalist look, or you can hover over it, click the arrow, and select "More Options" to make them a lighter shade of gray so they're less distracting. If you only have one data series, uncheck Legend to save space.
When Not to Use a Curved Graph
While curved graphs are visually appealing, they can sometimes be misleading. Smoothing a line involves a mathematical algorithm that creates a "best fit" curve, which might show peaks and valleys where no actual data exists. The smooth line can give an illusion of a steady, gradual change when in reality, the data might have experienced sharp, sudden shifts.
Avoid using a smoothed line chart when:
Displaying highly volatile data, like daily stock prices, where the sharp ups and downs are the most important part of the story.
Presenting scientific or financial data that requires absolute precision at each point. A curved line can obscure the exact value measurement.
Your audience might misinterpret the data. If precision is critical for decision-making, a standard, point-to-point line chart is a safer and clearer choice.
Final Thoughts
Creating a curved graph in Excel is a straightforward process that can instantly elevate how you present trend data. Whether you start with a Scatter with Smooth Lines chart or apply the smoothed line option to a standard line chart, you have full control over transforming sharp angles into elegant, easy-to-read curves.
As you've seen, building a polished chart in Excel is definitely manageable, but it often involves manual steps - pulling data, setting up the chart, and customizing it. When your data lives in different places like Shopify, Google Analytics, or Salesforce, this process can become a tedious weekly task. At our company, we built Graphed to remove that friction. Instead of manually creating visuals, you can connect all your data sources and simply ask for what you need in plain English - like "show me a line chart of Shopify sales this quarter" - and get a live, interactive dashboard that updates automatically.