Photoshop Shortcuts – The Fun Way
Posted on 12. Mar, 2010 by Shawn Ramsey in Articles
The use of Photoshop shortcuts make for a faster workflow and when used often enough become burned into our memory.
In this post I’m going to focus on several Photoshop shortcuts that I tend to use more often than others. Sure I could sit here and spell out every single shortcut available, but why reinvent the wheel? Here is a list of 10 of my favorite and most used Photoshop shortcuts delivered to you via Mr. Stickman.
Note: the shortcuts featured here are in the PC format. If you’re a Mac user, Ctrl = Cmd and Alt = Opt.
Zoom with scroll
Sure you can use the zoom tool straight off of the tool bar, but there is a much easier way. Just hold the Alt key and use the mouse scroll wheel to instantly zoom in and out of your current project.
Individual font scaling
If you’re looking to change the individual font size for a particular word or word-phrase within the text of your Photoshop document, simply highlight the text and hold Ctrl + Shift while using the > or < key to change the size of the font in 2px increments.
100% zoom
Often times when I’m working on a project, I’ll zoom in particularly close to handle detail-oriented aspects of the design. A quick way to get your image back to 100% is to simply double click the zoom tool or hit it with a bat if you’re a stick figure.
Brush size
I’m a fan of the brush tool, as most people are. See that little guy down there all happy with the two brushes in his hand? He may not be pretty, but he was introduced to this world via the brush tool. If you find yourself using it often, a nifty little trick to increase and decrease the size of the brush is to simply use the [ and ] characters while the brush tool is highlighted.
Layer opacity
The amount of transparency that a particular layer displays is know as it’s opacity. A quick way to increase and decrease the amount of opacity is to simply hit a numeric value on the keyboard while that particular layer is highlighted.
Super nudge
Moving objects around in Photoshop isn’t rocket science. You have the mouse and the shift + mouse to make quick large movements, there are the arrow keys for fine tuning an objects placement by 1px and then there is super nudge. Hold down the shift key while using the arrow keys to super nudge an item by 10 px increments.
Duplicate layer
Do you like that layer you just designed? Duplicating layers in Photoshop is a common task. Instead of dragging that layer to the “create a new layer icon” for duplication, simply hit Ctrl + J and save yourself some time. Just make sure the correct layer is highlighted first.
Undo
By far my most used keyboard shortcut is undo. Anytime you make a mistake in Photoshop and want to go back a few steps, just hit Ctrl + Alt + Z to undo the previous actions. There are ways to tell Photoshop how many times to remember the actions you’ve performed but again, this isn’t the time or place to address it. I’ll dig deeper into Photoshop techniques and tips in an upcoming post.
Hide/Show palettes
Feeling a little cluttered? If you need to sit back and focus at the task at hand, simply hit the Tab button. This will hide all palettes in Photoshop and give you a more minimal view of your current project. Just hit Tab again and your tools are back up and ready to go.
All shortcuts
Are you digging the shortcuts? There are so many it would take a .PDF to name them all. If you want to see the whole collection of Photoshop shortcuts or even create your own custom ones, just hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K and explore the pop-up menu that follows.
Summary
Hopefully you’ve learned at least one new trick here and if not, maybe you at least enjoyed the ride. As mentioned before there are hundreds of shortcuts out there and you can even make your own. Didn’t get enough? Maybe I’ll write a more lengthy followup article sometime in the near future. Until that day comes, there are plenty of keyboard shortcuts in the PDF format that should help you take full advantage of the power of Photoshop.
Do you have some cool shortcuts that you often use within Photoshop? We would love to hear about them. Share your tips in the comment section below so that others may benefit.
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37 Responses to “Photoshop Shortcuts – The Fun Way”
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Darryl Rowse
12. Mar, 2010
Great tips and an excellent way to showcase them. I would add using th Caps key to enter into precision cursor mode. Great article!
Ericka
12. Mar, 2010
I had no idea about the layer opacity trick. Thanks a ton for that one.
Tony
12. Mar, 2010
Very handy tips in this article. Also a very creative way to show it. Thanks for sharing. Oh yea, Smashing magazine sent me here. Shrug.
eap
12. Mar, 2010
I use ctrl+alt+shift+s all the time to enter the save for web dialog.
and the number keys also work for brush opacity
Heather Szerszen
12. Mar, 2010
I love the Super Nudge!
You can picture me sitting in front of my computer, tapping my arrow keys like the most intense video game ever, just to nudge something. Now I don’t have to tap as much. =)
Thank for sharing.
Shawn Ramsey
15. Mar, 2010
Super Nudge is a good one. I use to play that same video game before I knew about it.
Christian Vermeulen
12. Mar, 2010
I just use these a lot as well:
CTRL + 0 to go back to fit screen
CTRL + ALT + 0 to go back to 100% view
CTRL + MouseWheel for horizontal scroll
SPACE + DragMouse to drag the canvas instead of scrolling
Shawn Ramsey
15. Mar, 2010
Some of my favorites as well Christian.
Maria
13. Mar, 2010
Thanks for the shortcuts! I like the way you presented them.
Simon
13. Mar, 2010
I’ll chime in with three of my faves:
1. Cmd + Opt + Shift+N (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N) = New Layer
2. Also, in CS4, Ctrl + Opt + Drag (Ctrl + Alt + Drag) with the brush tool selected increases/decreases the brush size with a visual overlay on the screen. Throw the Cmd (Ctrl) key in there to change the brush hardness.
3. Cmd + Opt + Shift + E (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E) merges all visible layers onto a new layer.
Sam
13. Mar, 2010
Some excellent shortcuts here. Great job of adding some creativity to the post!
Shawn Ramsey
15. Mar, 2010
Thanks everyone for the comments and tips!
David Hardwick Photography
16. Mar, 2010
Thanks for the short cuts. I like your match-stick men.
Design Informer
17. Mar, 2010
Hey Shawn, I love the creative way that you decided to present this article. Excellent job!
Shawn Ramsey
17. Mar, 2010
Just trying to change things up a bit. I appreciate the compliment. Thanks Jad!
matt
25. Mar, 2010
my favorite is Alt+F4
Smiah
31. Mar, 2010
my favourite is the Reset key :D
Design Ideas
17. Apr, 2010
Nice article. Love it
Joe Mulberry
17. Apr, 2010
Great post!
Picked up the opacity and font size tricks
cheers
Alquiler de yates en Ibiza
19. Apr, 2010
Thanks for your photoshop-hints.
Jeprie
21. May, 2010
Interesting. However, you’ll need to draw more image to cover all shortcut.
Here’s a video from Deke mc Clelland on shortcut. http://www.deke.com/content/101-photoshop-tips-5-minutes
It’s the craziest photoshop video I’ve ever seen. I think you’ll like it.
Press Distribution
25. May, 2010
Great way of showing off the shortcuts, enjoyed reading it
steve
25. May, 2010
Thanks for the tips. Love the drawings to go with them, it helps a lot.
Reklambyrå Stockholm
26. May, 2010
Hm, i usually do not use shortcuts when i m designing but gotta try some of these
JayTurn
26. May, 2010
Love the way you presented this. Even though I have spent years with Photoshop, I am always learning something new. Changing the layer opacity is a great one that I haven’t used before.
Nice idea for the opacity graphic by the way.
PsdDude
22. Jun, 2010
Great tips and very funny too :)
Chris Miller
02. Jul, 2010
Very helpful, thanks for the Photoshop shortcuts! I need to memorize more than ctrl alt z :)
coder99
28. Jul, 2010
Very helpful, thanks for the Photoshop shortcuts! I need to memorize more than ctrl alt z :)
polestarinc
28. Jul, 2010
Thanks for your photoshop-hints.