
This dialog box is also a great place to find out what keyboard shortcuts are assigned to all commands.Ĩ. If you try to assign an already used combination, Photoshop will ask if you would like to reassign that key combination. Find the command on the list and assign the key combination you would like to use. If you find yourself continually using a command that doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut, you can easily assign one. To cycle though the other tools in the group, hold Shift + the letter for that group of tools, and the active tool will cycle to the next tool in the group. By pressing J, you will activate the last used tool in the group.
#Photoshop shortcuts Patch#
For example, the Spot Healing Brush, the Healing Brush, the Patch Tool and the Red Eye Tool all share the same shortcut key – the letter J. As you become familiar with these, you will notice that groups of tools all share the same shortcut key. For example B = Brush Tool, V = Move, J = Spot Healing Brush. Learn the keyboard shortcuts for your favorite tools. To deactivate the Hand Tool, release the space bar.ħ. Click and drag with the Hand Tool to move the document. To quickly navigate around the image, hold down the spacebar to temporarily activate the Hand Tool. Forget the scroll bars at the edges of the document window. Every time you press the Z key, you will move backwards one more step.Ħ. Need to go back further than the last step? Simply hold CTRL + Alt (PC) or Cmd + Option (Mac) and press Z. Pressing this combination again will redo (or rather, bring you back to before the undo). CTRL + Z (PC) or Cmd + Z (Mac) will undo one step. Bonus: To change the foreground and background colors back to the default colors (black for the foreground and white for the background) simply press the D key.ĥ. These same commands can also be used to fill a selection. Press ALT + Backspace (PC) or Option + delete (Mac) to fill the layer with the current background color. Press CTRL + Backspace (PC) or Cmd + delete (Mac) to fill the layer with the current foreground color. You can also adjust the opacity and blend mode of this new layer right in the New Layer dialog box, saving you an extra trip to the Layers Palette.Ĥ.


If you name all your layers, simply adding the ALT (PC) or Option (Mac) key to either of these combinations will open the New Layer dialog box so you can name the new layer on the fly. It will also copy an active selection onto a new layer, leaving the current layer intact.Īlso, pressing CTRL+ Shift + J (PC) or Cmd + Shift + J (Mac) will cut the current active selection from the active layer and paste it onto a new layer. This will create a copy of the active layer in the layers palette. Duplicating a layer is as simple as pressing CTRL + J (PC) or Cmd + J (Mac). Now you can keep the brush tip where it belongs, in the middle of your image, instead of making frequent trips up to the properties bar.ģ. Holding shift + ] (right bracket key) increases the hardness of the brush while holding shift + [ (left bracket key) will decrease the hardness. Along with size, brush hardness frequently needs to be adjusted. With the Brush Tool activated, rather than accessing the dropdown menu at the top of the screen, press the right bracket key, ], to increase the size of the brush and the left bracket key, [, to decrease.Ģ. With that in mind, here is a handy list of the top ten most time-saving keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop.ġ. Sometimes a few small changes can add up to a substantial increase in productivity. By Karl Rosencrants, Shutterstock Contributor
