Photoshop Shortcuts
SHORTCUTS FOR CREATIVITY
Learning photoshops shortcuts keys is very worthwhile not simply to save you time but more importantly to help expand your creativity. The faster and easier you can work the easier and more likely it is for you to experiment.
Most of the best and certainly original photoshop techniques are the result of several processes put together. If you can do these quickly you have more time to try different things. And if you don't like them you can quickly undo them using one of the most important shortcuts of all Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Alt + Z to undo again. (You can actually change this option in the preferences section. Use the shortcut Ctrl + K to see!)
LEARNING SHORTCUTS
Many shortcuts are based on letters. The first letter of a tools name is it's shortcut. Hence the Marquee tool is M. If a letter has already been used by another tool then usually it's the next consonant that's used. For instance the Move tool shortcut is V. There are exception however: The Dodge/burn/sponge tools is O. The eyedropper is easily remembered I.The healing brush/patch tool is the weirdest with the letter J. Where there are several tools together like blur/sharpen/smudge think of the first tool at the top of the list. In this case it's the blur tool. B is already used for the brush tool and L by the lasso. Hence the next consonant in ‘blur’ is R. To switch blur/sharpen/smudge press shft + R repeatedly until you get the tool you want.
Letters are also used to change the blend mode of some tools or layers by starting with the prefix Alt + Shft. Alt + Shft + O changes to overlay mode, with an M it's Multiply or S for screen. If you have an appropriate tool selected, like the brush tool, it will change that tools mode. If its not a relevant tool e.g. the Move tool then the layer selected will change.
Numbers do a similar thing to the opacity of either the tool or the layer. The number 5 changes the opacity to 50%, 2 to 20% and so on. 0 changes to 100%.
There are loads of shortcuts in photoshop, far too many to learn all at once. You can even buy a book just on photoshop shortcuts. And it's pretty thick. The key is to build up your repetoire slowly. If you find you're doing the same thing fairly regularly learn the shortcut for it then.
Below are some of the the more unusual shortcuts that I've found useful.
BOTH LASSOS AT ONCE
Start with the freehand lasso. When you want to switch to polygonal lasso hold down the Alt key and let go of the mouse button. Click for each point of the polygon. To go back to the freehand lasso hold down the mouse key and let go of Alt.
OPEN SHORTCUTS
Double click on the desktop to select the open dialog. Hold Ctrl and double click to get the new document dialog box.
FILL SHORTCUTS
To fill with foreground colour go Alt + Backspace (or Delete) and Ctrl + Backspace to fill with background colour.
To fill non transparent areas use Alt + Shft + Backspace or Ctrl + Shft + Backspace
CREATING A SEPERATE MERGED LAYER
Create a new layer (Ctrl + Alt + Shft + N) then Ctrl + Alt + Shft + EGUIDE CHANGE
When moving a guide around, press the Alt key to change the guide from horizontal to vertical, or vertical to horizontal.
TOGGLE THROUGH BLEND MODES
To rotate through the Blend Modes without having to go through the Drop-down menu each time, just press Shift - + (plus sign) while you're in the Layers palette.
INVERTING SHAPES
To invert a shape layer so the solid area become a hole and vice versa activate the layer clipping path by clicking its thumbnail once or twice until you see the border. Click it with the Path Component Selection tool (black arrow). Then click the add or subtract button in the options toolbar.
REMOVE POINTS FROM THE POLYGONAL LASSO
When using the Polygonal Lasso, you can easily remove the last pivot point made by pressing the Delete/Backspace key. Each time you press it, it removes a point.
MAKING A SHORTCUT KEY WITH ACTIONS
In the Actions pallette click the ‘create a new action’ button. Name, colour, and choose keystoke to use. Click ‘record’ button. Choose ‘insert menu Item’ from the pop-out menu. You'll get a box up. Choose your menu item and click OK. Then click the square stop button at the bottom.
If you wanted to choose specific settings for your menu item - eg Noise 5%, you'd skip ‘insert menu item’ and just go straight to the menu item. Whatever setting you chose would be recorded in the action.
HIDE PATH AROUND YOUR SHAPE
To hide the border around your shape press Shift-Control - H.
READ THE WEB COLOR ONSCREEN
When using the Eyedropper, go to the Info palette and click on the little Eyedropper icon. A drop-down menu appears. Choose Web color and it will display the RGB values in hexidecimal Web values.
CLIPPING SHORTCUT
The shortcut to clip one layer to the one below is Ctrl + G. You can also clip all adjacent linked layers like this. Ctrl + Shft + G unclips a layer.
WINDOWS FILE OPEN TRICK
You can double-click anywhere on your open workspace to bring up the Open dialog box. Sorry, this is Windows only.
LAYER MASK COPY
To quick copy your Layer Mask, select the Layer you want to copy the mask to, then click directly on the Mask you are copying, and drag it down to the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.
TOGGLE THROUGH BLEND MODES
To rotate through the Blend Modes without having to go through the Drop-down menu each time, just press Shift - + (plus sign) while you're in the Layers palette.
NO FUSS LAYER DELETE
Hold the Alt/Option key and click on the Trash icon in the Layers Palette to delete a Layer instantly.
REMOVING POINTS FROM THE POLYGON LASSO
When using the Polygonal Lasso, you can delete points you have just created by pressing Delete/Backspace. Each time you press it, it deletes the points in the order they were made.
PALETTE ORDER
To bring your palettes back to order, hold the Shift key and click on the topmost bar of your palette. It will then snap to the closest edge.
LOAD LUMINANCE OF A LAYER
ie. Make a selection based on luminance: Ctrl Alt Shft ~
This is a cool shortcut with lots of possible uses. Try this for more s to a photo. After selecting add fill layer in color, overlay, normal mode etc. (Try reversing the luminance mask - click on the layer mask thumb and press Ctrl I.)
ZOOM SHORT CUTS
Zoom in and out: Ctrl + or Ctrl -
Fit to frame: Ctrl + Space + 0
Actual size: Ctrl + Alt + 0
select zoom area: Ctrl + Space and click and drag with the mouse.