65 Pro Photoshop keyboard shortcuts you’re not using

Jan 18, 2024

Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

65 Pro Photoshop keyboard shortcuts you’re not using

Jan 18, 2024

Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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Using shortcuts in Photoshop will make your editing process way faster, more enjoyable, and even more fun. And there are so many of them it’s hard to memorize them all. While I’m sure you already use them, Jesús Ramirez of Photoshop Training Channel offers some Photoshop shortcuts you may not know. In his latest video, he shares an extensive list of 65 shortcuts – I bet you didn’t know about at least some of them.

In the video, Jesús includes some of the Photoshop shortcuts you may be familiar with or using regularly. For me, these are “CTRL + Shift + I,” “Q,” and “Ctrl + Alt + A,” to name a few. But there are plenty new Photoshop tricks that I’ve learned from this video. Jesús even shares some Photoshop “Easter eggs” that will make editing so much more fun. Here’s the full list, but make sure to watch the video and see each of the shortcuts in action and get a complete idea of how they work.

  1. Liquify Filter: Hold Alt while using the Forward Warp Tool to reconstruct areas.
  2. Preventing Snapping: Hold CTRL to prevent snapping while dragging.
  3. Clone Stamp: Hold Alt + Shift and tap bracket keys to scale the sample source.
  4. Puppet Warp: Hold Alt to rotate pins in Puppet Warp.
  5. Zoom to Layer: Hold Alt and click on a layer thumbnail to zoom in.
  6. Open Flattened PSD Files: Hold Shift + Alt and click open to view a flattened version of a large file.
  7. Erase with Active Brush: Hold the tilde key to erase with the currently active brush.
  8. Rotating Brush: Tap the right/left arrow keys to rotate the brush tip.
  9. Eyedropper Tool: Hold Alt to temporarily enable the Eyedropper Tool.
  10. Brush Preview: Press Caps Lock to toggle brush preview and crosshair.
  11. Intersecting Selections: Hold Alt + Shift for intersection selection.
  12. Lasso to Polygonal Tool: Hold Alt to switch to the Polygonal Lasso Tool.
  13. Deselecting: Press CTRL + D to deselect.
  14. Redoing Last Selection: Press CTRL + Shift + D to redo the last selection.
  15. Loading Luminosity: Press CTRL + Alt + 2 to load luminosity.
  16. Invert Selection: Press CTRL + Shift + I to invert selection.
  17. Quick Mask Mode: Press Q to enter Quick Mask Mode.
  18. Feathering Selection: Press Shift + F6 to feather a selection.
  19. Fade Command: Press CTRL + Shift + F to access the Fade Command.
  20. Easter Egg: Banana Tool: Hold Shift and click done in the toolbar edit to add a banana.
  21. Distance Between Objects: Hold CTRL with the Move Tool to see distances.
  22. Revert Image: Press F12 to revert the image.
  23. Closing Multiple Documents: Press CTRL + Alt + P to close all but the active document.
  24. Whoopsie-Daisy Key: Press Escape to exit a tool or dialog.
  25. Resetting Preferences: Press CTRL + Alt + Shift when starting Photoshop to reset preferences.
  26. Turn Cancel to Reset: Hold Alt in dialog boxes to reset.
  27. Enabling Visual Guides: Press CTRL + R with the Move Tool to enable rulers and create guides.
  28. Moving Multiple Guides: Hold Alt + Shift to select and move multiple guides.
  29. Guide Customization: Hold Alt + Shift and double-click a guide to edit.
  30. Setting Default Colors: Press D to set default foreground and background colors.
  31. Swap Foreground/Background Colors: Press X to swap foreground and background colors.
  32. Fill with Foreground Color: Press Alt + Backspace to fill with foreground color.
  33. Fill with Background Color: Press CTRL + Backspace to fill with background color.
  34. Opaque Pixels Filling: Add Shift to fill only opaque pixels.
  35. Fill with History: Press CTRL + Alt + Backspace to fill with history.
  36. Hide Layers: Press CTRL + Comma to hide the active layer.
  37. Activate Layers: Use Alt and bracket keys to activate layers without mouse.
  38. Adding to Active Layers: Use Shift + Alt and bracket keys to add to active layers.
  39. Activate All Layers: Press CTRL + Alt + A to activate all layers.
  40. Move Layer Up/Down: Use CTRL and bracket keys to move layers.
  41. Move Layer To Top/Bottom: Use Shift + CTRL and bracket keys to move layers to top or bottom.
  42. Activate Masks: Press CTRL + backslash to activate layer masks.
  43. Activate Layer: Press CTRL + 2 to activate the layer.
  44. Opacity & Fill Shortcuts: Use number keys to change layer opacity.
  45. Lock Transparent Pixels: Press the forward slash key to lock transparent pixels.
  46. Renaming Layers: Use Tab while editing a layer’s name to move to other layers.
  47. Tool Shortcuts: Use keyboard keys like B, Z, W to activate tools.
  48. Spring-Loaded Shortcuts: Hold a tool’s shortcut to temporarily switch to it.
  49. Bird’s Eye View: Press CTRL + T for transformation, CTRL + 0 to zoom out.
  50. Repeating Transformation: Use CTRL + Alt + Shift + T to repeat a transformation.
  51. Changing Canvas Colors: Hold Spacebar and tap F to toggle canvas colors.
  52. Interface Color Themes: Press CTRL + Shift + F1/F2 to change the interface color.
  53. Easter Egg: Toast and Coffee Cup: CTRL + Alt + Shift + click on themes for icons change.
  54. Precise Rotations: Use arrow keys in the rotate field for precise rotation.
  55. Moving Curves Points: Use arrow keys to move points in Curves.
  56. Transforming Active Text: Hold CTRL to transform text.
  57. Creating New Text On Click: Hold Shift and click to create a new text layer.
  58. Fast Font Size Change: Use CTRL + Shift and period/comma to change font size.
  59. Text Formatting: Use CTRL + Shift + K/U/B/I for text styling.
  60. Reset Text Format: Press CTRL + Shift + Y to reset text format.
  61. Adjust Leading: Hold Alt and arrow keys to adjust leading.
  62. Adjust Baseline Shift: Hold Shift + Alt and arrow keys for baseline shift.
  63. Adjust Kerning: Hold Alt and arrow keys to adjust kerning.
  64. Disable/Enable Hyphens: Press Shift + Alt + CTRL + H to toggle hyphens.
  65. Saving All Shortcuts: Press CTRL + Alt + Shift + K to save a list of all shortcuts.

Bonus: Lightroom shortcuts, tips and tricks

Before I move to Photoshop for finer adjustments, I usually edit my RAW images in Lightroom first. If you do the same, let me leave you with a few links to make this part of your workflow faster:

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Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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