Photoshop Shortcut All-Stars
by Emir Plicanic | Views: 1397
When it comes to working quickly and efficiently, shortcuts are the key! While memorizing all of the available shortcuts might take awhile, there are a handful you won't want to be without.
(Note: for Mac users, use the "Command" key instead of "Ctrl")
Here are some personal favorites:
Navigating Around the Tool Palette.
These shortcuts switch from your current tool to the following:
- v - move tool
- b - brush tool
- c - crop tool
- p - pen tool
- e- eraser tool
- I - eye dropper tool
- j - patch/healing brush tool
- l - lasso tools
- m - marquee tool
- o - dodge/burn/sponge tools
- s - cloning stamp tools
- t - type tools
- w - magic wand tool
Navigating Around Your Image.
These shortcuts help you move around your image quicker by temporarily switching from your current tool to one of the following:
- Spacebar - handtool
- "Ctrl" + "z" - zoom tool
- "Ctrl" + "+/-" - zooms in/out.
- The more times you press "+" or “-" the more you zoom in or out.
- "Ctrl" + "0 (zero)" - Fits the image on your screen.
Handy when you’ve zoomed in so far that you're lost.
Fine Tuning
These shortcuts fine tune the settings for any "brush type" tool (including the paint brush, clone stamp, eraser, etc...) These shortcuts are successive in nature. The more you press them, the more they affect your brush.
- [ - Decreases brush size.
- ] - Increases brush size.
- "Shift" + "[" - Softens the brush
- "Shift" + "]" - Hardens the brush
Other Good Tricks to Know
You can change the opacity in the options bar for whichever tool you're using by pressing the corresponding number key on your keyboard. If you're using the clone stamp, for example, pressing "2" will change the opacity to 20%. "3" to 30% etc...
- "Ctrl" + "d" - Deselects your current selection
- "Ctrl" + "r" - Turns on visibility of the horizontal and vertical rulers
- d - Sets foreground and background colors to default (black & white)
- x - Swaps background and foreground swatches
- "Ctrl" + "j" - If you have an active selection, this will copy your selection to its own new layer.
- "Ctrl" + "e" - Merges current active layer with next layer underneath
If you have a large number of layers, and want to merge them into a single layer (while maintaining copies of their original layers), add a new blank layer, and press "Shift" + "Ctrl" + "Alt" + "e". If there are some layers you don't want to include in your merge, turn off their visibility (by clicking the eye next to the name of the layer in the layers palette) before using the shortcut.
Khara Lintel is a professional photographer, photoshop educator, and graphic artist. See her work at www.kabloomstudios.com
All images and content copyright Khara Lintel, KaBloom Studios