Seeing as the last post on Essential Photoshop Shortcuts was pretty popular, I thought I’d share a few more, this time for the functions I use most often and find most valuable to have as shortcuts.
The Biggies
Ctrl+S is probably THE most important! It’s the command for Save and if you’ve been in the graphics industry any amount of time, your fingers probably do this by habit without you realizing it!
Variations:
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S is the Save for Web shortcut.
Ctrl+Shift+S will let you access the Save As dialog box (it’s always good to save out versions of a file as you work on it, just in case one gets corrupted or you make a mistake that you can’t undo for some reason).
Ctrl+Z is probably the second most important (oh how I wish life had one of these!). It allows you to undo the last thing you did. If you press it again, it acts as redo. If you want to go back farther than one step, use the History Palette.
You probably already know that Ctrl+A is Select All (the whole canvas), Ctrl+X is Cut selection and Ctrl+V is Paste, but did you know you can also do a Copy Merged (grabs everything from every layer within the selection) by hitting Ctrl+Shift+C? This is useful when you need to take a color corrected image into a new Photoshop document and you don’t want all the adjustment layers coming with it.
Other Nice Ones to Know
Similarly, Ctrl+Shift+E will merge all visible layers together (the new layer will retain the name of the top most layer that was merged). This is a very helpful function for things like going from RBG to CMYK, where some adjustment layers (like Brightness/Contrast) will not transfer to CMYK.
[ or ] resizes the brush of tools like Brush, Eraser, Dodge/Burn,Healing and Clone Stamp. Holding shift with the brackets changes the brush’s hardness. You can also change the opacity by pressing 0 – 9 (if you are not in a tool with a brush, pressing 0 – 9 will change the opacity of the currently selected layer). And while we’re on brushes, use the context sensitive menu (right click to bring it up) while in a brush tool to change the brush shape. You can also use this menu to change the diameter and the hardness, but you’d use the shortcuts for that!
How annoying is it to have to go Edit>Preferences>Units and Rulers every time you want to go from pixels to inches (or centimeters for the rest of the world)? Never do that again! Just bring up the Ruler (R) and then right click on it to see all the different units you can measure in! You can also get to this on the Info Palette next to the X/Y coordinate readout. Just left click on the crosshair icon (looks like a plus) to the left of the coordinates.
Give yourself more screen area to work with by pressing Tab (or Shift+Tab to make everything except the Tools Palette go away. But you shouldn’t need to see that because you’ve already memorized all the shortcuts, right??)
Take It Easy!
If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by all these new Photoshop key commands, take it easy. There’s no need to begin using them all the next time you open Photoshop. Just pick one or two to work on each day or week (depending on how often you’re in PS). Make a conscious effort to use the shortcut instead of the menu or button you normally use. It may take you a few seconds to try to remember the keys, but eventually this will become much faster and you’ll pick up speed and efficiency as your fingers learn these strokes. Oh, and if you’re really wanting to see how well you know how to get around Photoshop without the menus, try hitting tab to make them all go away! Can you convert a path to a selection without the Path Palette?
Let me know if I’ve missed any important ones! There are so many hundreds more function shortcuts and I’m sure I don’t know them all! Did you find this list helpful? Did you know most of this already? Have you begun memorizing the shortcuts I shared last week?
More shortcuts:
Another excellent list, thanks Lauren!
Did you know you can perform multiple undos (without using the history palette) with the keyboard command Ctrl+Alt+Z? I probably use that one more than any other (except maybe Ctrl+S)! :)
Another helpful one for me, thanks!
Charity, if I’ve heard of that I can’t remember! I’ll probably start using that, too. Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad you’re coming around much more often, Nap Warden! It’s great to see you here and I’m glad so many things I write are helpful for you!
yes, multiple undo’s is a life saver. Also Ctrl+F for repeating the filter, Ctrl+H for toggling between Showing and Hiding all the Extras (guides, rulers, grid).
Now, I have a question to you all - How do I get rid off the Grid every time I open an Image in Photoshop? Whenever I launch Photoshop and open an image, it opens with the Grid, and I have to use Ctrl+H to hide it, after that all other images open up without the grid. However when I close Photoshop and launch it later, all images are again opening with the grid, unless I manually hide it. So frustrating… I got it working once, but can’t remember how.
Does it make sense, what I meant?
I think it’s Macromedia Director that only has 1 undo. That program was sometimes so frustrating to work in! I probably saved at least 10 versions of all the projects I was working on because I was so paranoid about not being able to go back. So yes, multiple undos is SO nice!
I use Ctrl+F and +H often too. I’ve never heard of that grid problem you’re having, but I know when you have rulers on in the current image (or the one that was open last time you were in PS if you’re just starting it up) then it will show up in the next image you open. What you probably need to do is go into the View menu and turn off the grid (not just Ctrl+H, that only makes it not show, it’s still there). So, View>Show>Grid and make sure it’s unchecked (or Ctrl+’). You must have a document open in order to do this and if you don’t want it to show up next time either, make sure the last document you have open when you close PS has grids turned off (not just hidden).
Try that and let me know if it works!
You know what, Lauren? I just opened my Photoshop to try your advise on removing the grid, opened a new image in it, and guess what - it showed up with no grids. I think I must’ve hid the grids like you said - from the menu, rather than with the shortcut and closed my Photoshop with no grids. I was always closing Photoshop with no grids, but turning them off with Ctrl+H (or rather Cmd+H). Anyhow, no more annoying grids at the beginning. Thanks.
Well now if it ever happens again, you know what to do! And maybe someone else out there is struggling with the same (or similar) problem and will find the solution here :)
Oh oh! I just thought of another one.
I didn’t know about Ctrl+H (very useful, thank you Viv) but I often use Ctrl+; which just shows/hides the guides. So if you want to bring your guides out without the clutter of the grids and rulers, that’ll do the trick!
Yes, good one, especially if you want other things to remain visible (like the marching ants of a selection or the grid if you’re using it). Ctrl+H is also useful for hiding that path outline on shape layers. I hate seeing that when I’m trying to move a shape around to see how it would look in different positions in a layout.
You’re welcome, Charity. I didn’t know that Ctrl+H also hides the path outline - Thanks, Lauren.
Another shortcut that I use often is Cmd+ / Cmd- on Mac (forgot what was the corresponding one on PC) to Zoom In and Out the entire image.
Also Ctrl-click on the layer to pinpoint the active layer in the Layer palette. And after whatever I was working with it’s helpful to simply click on V to get to the Layer Move mode.
I’ve met several designers who work with the favourite graphics program almost exclusively with shortcuts. Mouse they’re using only to draw. I still use my mouse quite a bit to do other than drawing but the knowledge of shortcuts indeed helps to speed up the work.
Yes, I use those zoom commands often, too, Vivien (Ctrl is the PC version of Cmd, and Alt is the PC version of Option). Instead of Ctrl+clicking on the layer, you can use the Move Tool (v) and go up to the tool menu and check the box that says “Auto Select Layer.” I very rarely turn that option off (sometimes I do if the layer I’m moving has transparency because it doesn’t work too well with that effect… always selects the layer underneath).
This has turned into a great little mini forum of useful PS shortcuts! Thanks for sharing everyone! Feel free to jump in and add more. Maybe we’ll be in for a third installment, this time with reader contributed shortcuts!
I was actually thinking the same thing - very helpful discussions around shortcuts. Thanks for the initiative, Lauren.
I did know that Ctrl is the PC version of Cmd, but then Charity said that Ctrl+ hides the guides, so I thought perhaps there’s another shortcut on PC for Zoom In/Out.
Yes, the more shortcuts, the merrier
P.S. I’m actually posting this comment from the Vancouver airport, on my way to NYC. It’s so nice that there’s a free internet wifi here :-)
I just noticed you said you use Ctrl +/-. I actually use Ctrl+spacebar (in) or Ctrl+Alt+spacebar (out). I find it easier since I’m always using spacebar for the hand tool anyway. Ctrl+; (semicolon) hides guides and Ctrl+’ (apostrophe) hides the grid, like we talked about above. It can get confusing with all this punctuation!
Is your trip business or vacation, Vivien?
Thanks for clarifications, Lauren.
My trip to NY is business, 4 days training for the employees of one of our client companies. I hope I’ll have some energy and time left in the evenings to explore the city.
Well have fun and return safely, Vivien! Maybe you’ll find some new inspiration while you’re there and you can share it with us :)
Right click the ruler! Thank you… fantastic nuggets of info
John,
Glad you learned something new! Check out Favorite Photoshop Tips from Doug C, too. He has some useful stuff there.