Top 10 Photoshop Shortcuts
As you become more familiar with the Photoshop interface, you’ll find that you produce work with greater speed and efficiency. Shortcuts are very useful for streamlining the creative process, so here I have listed my essential Top 10 Photoshop Shortcuts. Im certain these would benefit any Photoshop user not familiar with them. These things are pretty subjective, so feel free to share your own in the comments section below
10. INVERT SELECTION
Hitting Ctrl / Cmd + I when there is an active selection will select the inverse, useful for selectively editing portions of a layer. Also handy: Ctrl / Cmd + Clicking a layer will create a selection based on the layers contents.
9. GROUP LAYERS
Life is so much nicer with Layer Groups. To quickly group selected layers, simply hit Ctrl / Cmd + G – this will automatically bring them all into a new Layer Group Folder, which you can rename if you wish. Layer Groups in themselves are excellent time-saving tools; no more hunting for those stray elements hidden in a cluttered layer stack!
8. MERGE DOWN
Ctrl / Cmd + E will merge a layer down. If you have multiple layers selected in the stack ( achieved by holding Shift or Ctrl / Cmd + Clicking layers ), using Ctrl / Cmd + E will merge all the selected layers.
7. INCREASE / DECREASE BRUSH SIZE
This little number is especially helpful when working with layer masks: use the bracket keys [ ] to increase / decrease the brush size. Less time tweaking with dialog settings = faster workflow.
6. UNDO / STEP BACKWARD
It’s pretty mad but Ive only recently started using this shortcut combo, however it quickly became one of my essential shortcuts. Ctrl / Cmd + Z will undo the last action in Photoshop – Alt, Ctrl / Cmd + Z will step backward through your recent actions. Less time clicking through History states
5. SWITCH COLOURS
When working with Layer Masks, this shortcut is a lifesaver – hitting X will cycle between the foreground and background colour.
4. DEFAULT COLOURS
Black and White are used often in Photoshop for a variety of functions. To quickly restore the foreground and background colours to the default of Black and White, simply hit D .
3. MOVE TOOL
All the functions in the tools palette have their own shortcuts, it’s well worth learning the keys for your favourites. The Move Tool is one of the functions that’s used very often, so hitting V to quickly switch to it sure does come in handy
2. ZOOM CONTROLS
A perennial favourite and absolute time saver! Use Ctrl / Cmd + ( + or – ) to zoom in or out of the document, Ctrl / Cmd + 1 to view the document at actual size and Ctrl / Cmd + 0 to fit the document in the window. If you want to selectively zoom into a specific area, simply hit Z to switch to the Zoom Tool.
1. SPACE BAR PANNING
My absolute favourite of the bunch. Holding down the Space Bar will activate a temporary Hand Tool, which will allow you to pan the document with the mouse. The benefits of this are multitude. For instance, when zoomed in doing detailed work you can effectively move the document around, not having to fuss with the scroll bars. Sounds simple enough, but can literally save hours in the long run!
REVIEW
Everyone has their favourites, these were a few of mine. I’d love to learn some new time-saving shortcuts, so feel free to share yours in the comments below.