Quick Keys in Photoshop

posted by Liz

There are many useful shortcuts in Photoshop. I like using keystrokes to move through my project rather than racing my mouse back and forth. If this sounds like you, check out this list of shortcuts. (Not all shortcuts are useful to everybody, but if there are some that you get into a natural habit of doing, it can save you time.)

1. ⌘J places a selection on a new layer

2. ⌘E merges selected layers

3. Holding Spacebar while drawing a marquee selection moves originating selection point

4. Holding Option while drawing a marquee selection moves it outward from the originating point

5. You can hold down ⌘ and click on a layer to create a selection around it.

6. Press ⌘+Shift+I to select the opposite (inverse) of something. (Sometimes the easiest way to select a complex area is to select the simpler area and reverse the selection.)

7. Use ⌘D to deselect.

8. While using the pen tool, hold ⌘ to temporarily convert it to the direct select tool and manipulate the path handles; release it to switch back.

9. Hold Option and drag layers in the Layers Palette (or in your document) to copy them or hold Option and drag existing layer styles from one layer to another to apply the same drop shadow, etc. to other layers.

10. Hold ⌘ and click on the new layer button in the Layers palette to create a new layer under the currently selected layer.

11. ⌘Z to undo one step, ⌘+Option+Z to undo multiple steps,
⌘+Shift+Z to go forward in case you back up one too many. (The default number of steps you can undo is 20. To increase the number of "undo" steps, go to Photoshop>Preferences>Performance and under "History & Cache," modify the number of History States.)

12. Use the brackets "[" and "]" to lower and increase your brush size. (Works for anything that uses brush sizes: brush, eraser, clone stamp, etc.)

13. ⌘0 fits the document to the screen. ⌘+Option+0 zooms to 100%. (That's zero, not the letter O.)

14. ⌘T gives you the free transform box. Right click or Ctrl + click inside the box to skew, warp, flip, etc.

15. Zoom in with ⌘= and use ⌘- to zoom out. You can also click and drag the zoom tool to magnify a specific area. (The key commands here are especially useful for zooming while you're in free transform and are temporarily locked out of the other tools.)

16. Hit ⌘+Return when you've finished typing some text to exit the text box.

To change the keystrokes connected to each command or to set quick keys to a command that does not have a default combination applied to it, go to Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts and click on the command you want to assign a key combo to. If you choose a combination that's already in use, it will give you the option to switch the shortcut from one operation to another.

Also, most tools have letters applied to them and I'm constantly pressing "V" for the move arrow and so on. Just hover your cursor over a tool to see which letter activates the ones you use most.

One quick tip for the Mac:
Hold down ⌘ and then hit Tab to cycle through your open applications. You can switch to different apps this way or simply Tab over to the one you want and press Q to close it. Release ⌘ when you're done.

What quick keys do you use? Share yours in the comments.