Summary of Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts for Designers

As we are designing your Pop Up Display Stand, Roll Up Banner Stand or any other poster or banner design, we often utilise keyboard shortcuts to optimise our lead time. As such we have collected a list of commonly used photoshop shortcuts (for window and mac) and decided to sum them all up in this post. For all new graphic designers this post will help you a lot, and for all the experienced designers, this can serve as a gentle reminder.

Selection

Select All – Ctrl+A/Cmd

Deselect – Ctrl+D/ Cmd

Invert Selection – Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+I

Reselect – Ctrl+Shift+D/Cmd

Modify Selections

To Add – Shift+Click

To Subtract – Option/Alt+Click

To Intersect – Option/Alt+Shift+Click

To Feather – Shift+F6

To Refine Edge – Cntrl/Cmd + Option/Alt+R

Change Selected Layer(s) Blending Mode:

Normal – Alt/Option+Shift+N

Dissolve – Alt/Option+Shift+I

Darken – Alt/Option+Shift+K

Multiply – Alt/Option+Shift+M

Colour Burn – Alt/Option+Shift+B

Linear Burn – Alt/Option+Shift+A

Lighten – Alt/Option+Shift+G

Screen – Alt/Option+Shift+S

Colour Dodge – Alt/Option+Shift+D

Linear Dodge – Alt/Option+Shift+W

Overlay – Alt/Option+Shift+O

Soft Light – Alt/Option+Shift+F

Hard Light – Alt/Option+Shift+H

Vivid Light – Alt/Option+Shift+V

Linear Light – Alt/Option+Shift+J

Pin Light – Alt/Option+Shift+Z

Hard Mix – Alt/Option+Shift+L

Difference – Alt/Option+Shift+E

Exclusion – Alt/Option+Shift+X

Hue – Alt/Option+Shift+U

Saturation – Alt/Option+Shift+T

Colour – Alt/Option+Shift+C

Luminosity – Alt/Option+Shift+Y

Layers

Selection based on layer’s Content – Ctrl/Cmd+Click on layer’s thumbnail

Selection of all layers – Ctrl/Cmd+Option/Alt+A

Clipping mask – Option/Alt+Click between two layers

Group layers – Ctrl/Cmd+G

Ungroup layers – Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G

Moving layers up/down in a layer stack – Ctrl/Cmd+[/]

Sending layers to front/back in a layer stack – Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+[/]

Select next layer – Option/Alt+[/]

Show only selected layer – Option/Alt+click layer’s “eye icon”

Create a new layer – Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+N

Merge all layer – Ctrl/Cmd+Option/Alt+Shift+E

Change opacity for selected layer – 0-9 (tool selected has to be without opacity controls)

Drawing

Increase/decrease brush size – Ctrl/Cmd+Option/Alt+Click and drag to left/right

Increase/decrease brush hardness – Ctrl/Cmd+Option/Alt+Click and drag to top/bottom

Cycle through brush tips – [/]

Drawing perfect circles and squares – Shift+Drag to draw

Drawing from the center – Hold Option/Alt+Drag to draw

Draw perfect vertical and horizontal lines – Hold Shift+Drag to draw

Heads Up Display (HUD) Colour Picker – Ctrl/Cmd+Option/Alt+Shift/Ctrl+click and hold with Brush Tool

Eyedropper – Hold Option/Alt while drawing with Brush Tool

Fill with foreground colour – Option/Alt+Backspace

Fill with backgound colour – Cmd/Ctrl+Backspace

Fill dialog box – Shift+Backspace

Change opacity of drawing tool – 0-9

Change flow of drawing tool – Shift+0-9

View Options

Fit Screen – Ctrl/Cmd+0

Mask View – Option/Alt+click on layer mask

Bird’s Eye View – Press and hold H

Scrubby Zoom – Hold Z + Click and drag left or right

Click here  if you want have the complete glossary of terms and definitions commonly used by graphic designers.

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