Visualizing trends over time is a core requirement for many business reports. An Area chart fills the space between data points and the axis, making it ideal for emphasizing the magnitude of change. This guide shows you how to create both a simple Area chart and a stacked Area chart in Excel using C# with Aspose.Cells for .NET. The code snippets are complete, ready to compile, and can be adapted to any .NET project.

This article covers the following topics:

C# Excel Library to Create Area Charts

Aspose.Cells for .NET is a comprehensive Excel manipulation library that enables developers to create, edit, and render Excel files without Microsoft Office. It provides a clean, object‑oriented API for working with worksheets, cells, and charts.

Key benefits when working with charts:

  • Rich chart type support – includes standard, stacked, 100 % stacked, and many specialized chart types.
  • Full formatting control – customize colors, markers, axes, legends, and data labels programmatically.
  • Cross‑platform – works on Windows, Linux, and macOS with .NET 6+.
  • High performance – handles large data sets efficiently.

To start using Aspose.Cells, add the NuGet package to your project:

PM> Install-Package Aspose.Cells

Create an Area Chart in Excel using C#

Below is a complete, ready‑to‑run console application that creates a simple Area chart. The example follows these steps:

  1. Instantiate a Workbook.
  2. Populate the first worksheet with sample data.
  3. Add an Area chart object.
  4. Configure the chart series and axes.
  5. Save the workbook as an XLSX file.

Explanation of key lines

LinePurpose
ChartType.AreaSpecifies a standard Area chart.
chart.NSeries.Add("=Sheet1!$B$2:$B$4", true)Adds a data series; the second argument (true) indicates that the series uses the first column as categories.
chart.CategoryAxis.Title.TextSets the X‑axis title.
chart.PlotArea.Area.FormattingControls background formatting of the plot area.

Running the program generates AreaChart_Output.xlsx with a nicely formatted Area chart displaying sales trends for two products.

Create a Stacked Area Chart in Excel using C#

A stacked Area chart shows the contribution of each series to the total value. The code below builds on the previous example and changes the chart type to ChartType.StackedArea.

What changes compared to the simple Area chart?

  • ChartType.AreaStacked – renders each series on top of the previous one.
  • Multiple series are added to illustrate cumulative data.
  • Transparency is applied to the plot area to keep the visual clean.

The generated Excel files will display fully functional Area charts, ready for further customization or distribution.

Get a Free License

Explore Aspose.Cells without limitations by obtaining a temporary license:

var license = new Aspose.Cells.License();
license.SetLicense("Aspose.Cells.lic");

A licensed environment removes the evaluation watermark and unlocks the full feature set.

Area Chart Excel: Free Resources

Strengthen your Excel automation skills with these official resources:

Conclusion

In this article we demonstrated how to create both a standard Area chart and a stacked Area chart in Excel using C# and Aspose.Cells for .NET. The provided code samples are complete, compilable, and illustrate best practices for chart creation, styling, and file saving. By integrating these snippets into your own applications you can deliver compelling visual analytics without relying on Microsoft Excel.

For additional help, start a conversation on the Aspose.Cells support forum.

See Also