Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts enable you to carry out an action more quickly than using a mouse, especially if you have a keyboard (PC and laptops). If you use them frequently, you can use them almost without thinking. They allow you to work more efficiently and increase productivity. There are many actions you will use again and again whilst editing images and the following keyboard shortcuts will make your life easier and your work quicker.
Some shortcuts also promote more accurate, higher quality work. An example is changing brush size. When working in different areas of an image it’s often beneficial to change brush size, sometimes frequently, to work more accurately. If you only click on buttons and drag sliders, it can be tedious and you won’t bother as often as you should. If something is quick and easy, we are more likely to do it. I've seen that not doing this is one mistake so many beginners make and it reduces the quality of their work.
The following shortcuts work with most versions of Photoshop and Elements. For Mac users, use Cmd instead of Ctrl and use Option instead of Alt.
To remember shortcuts, you must use them frequently, so if there are some actions you don’t use much, you probably won’t remember the shortcut, but if you don’t use them much, it won’t matter.
Recommended Keyboard Shortcuts
Scroll wheel
Use mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out (set in Preferences) Technically, not a keyboard shortcut, but extremely useful.
[ (left square bracket)
Decrease brush size
] (right square bracket)
Increase brush size
Space Bar + mouse
Press and hold to turn cursor into Hand tool to navigate around image
Ctrl + D
Deselect – cancels a selection. If something isn’t working, it may be because you have a very small area selected that you can’t see. Deselecting will often solve this problem, but if not, at least is eliminates the possibility of an active selection
X
Switch foreground and background colors – very useful with layer masks
Note that when using the Crop tool and you have an active crop (gridlines visible), X switches orientation, i.e. it swaps width and height, which is a good shortcut when cropping images. If you don't have an active crop, even if the Crop tool is selected, X will still swap Foreground and Background Colors.
D
Selects default foreground and background colors – useful with layer masks
Arrow Keys
When Move Tool is selected, the arrow keys nudge the layer by one pixel
Ctrl + Z
Undo / Redo last action
Ctrl + S
Save
Alt + Quick Selection tool
automatically selects Subtract from Selection
Alt + click Layer Mask
View the layer mask in black and white. Essential for checking mask quality.
Shift + click Layer Mask
Disable/Enable the layer mask. You can also right click and select each option.
Ctrl + click Layer Mask
Loads the mask as a selection. Very useful to apply on a different layer or mask.
Alt + Backspace
Fills the layer with the Foreground Colour.
Ctrl + Backspace
Fills the layer with the Foreground Colour.
Ctrl + mouse
Press and hold Ctrl to turn cursor into Move tool to move layer or selection.
Ctrl + Alt + Z
Undo by stepping back through History States
S
Clone Stamp Tool
C
Crop Tool
B
Brush Tool
Alt + Eye icon
Turns visibility off of all layers except the layer where you clicked the eye icon. When you have a lot of layers, this is extremely useful to quickly see a before & after. Also see Layer Comps for an easy alternative.
Tab key
Shows / hides all panels (useful on small screens to clear the screen while editing)
Ctrl + J
Duplicate the selected layer or layers. If a selection is active, copies selection to new layer, instead of having to copy and paste.
Ctrl + 0
Fits the image on screen regardless of how zoomed in you were.
Ctrl + 1
Zooms to 100% so each screen pixel = 1 image pixel. This gives an accurate preview, which is useful for adjusting some filters, e.g. sharpening
Type Double Click
Double Click a Type layer Thumbnail to select the text on that layer.
Ctrl + I
Inverts layer, or layer mask, whichever is selected
Shift + Backspace
Opens the Fill panel (menu alternative: Edit > Fill
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E
Creates a new composite layer of everything visible (just like saving as a jpeg). Sometimes you must add a new empty layer first.
R
Rotate tool. Then click and drag to rotate the image. Very useful when hand painting.
Esc (Rotate Tool)
Reset the Rotate tool to regular view.
Alt + Click on Cancel
When there is a cancel button, press and hold Alt and click on Cancel to reset.
Keys 0-9
When pressed on their own, these automatically adjust layer opacity. 0=100% opacity, 1=10%, 2=20%, 3=30% etc. If you press two keys quickly in succession you will enter that percentage, e.g. 1 and 2 pressed quickly = 12%. Note: this does not work with some tools, e.g. Brush, Clone, etc.
