Photoshop Shortcuts

The following is a list of some shortcuts to help you on your way to Photoshop and world dominance.  This is only a short list and contains the shortcuts that I use most often…  If you have one that is helpful, post it in the comments section.

Mac “option” = PC “alt”

Mac “command” = PC “control”

Selections or Marquee

(M) – Switch to the marquee tool

(Shift + M) – Toggles between square and circle marquee tools

(Shift) – Adds new selection to current selection

(Alt) – Subtract new selection from current selection

(Alt + Shift) – Creates an intersection between the new and current selections

(Control + D) Deselects the current selection

Hovering over the selection and clicking – Deselects the current selection

Control Clicking on a layer – Creates a selection around the artwork on that layer

Hold down Control with the selection tools activates the move tool

Painting

(B) – Active brush tool

(Shift + B) Toggle between Brush, Pencil, and Color replacement tool

(Right Bracket Key “]”) – Increase brush size

(Left Bracket Key “[") - Decrease brush size

(Shift + Right Bracket Key "]“) – Increase brush hardness

(Left Bracket Key “[”) – Decrease brush hardness

Zooming

(Z) – Activate zoom tool

(Control + Plus sign “+”) – Increase zoom

(Control + Minus sign “-”) – Decrease zoom

(Control + “1″) – Zoom to 100%

(Double click zoom tool) – Zoom to 100%

(Control + “0″) – Zoom to fit

(Double click on “Hand” tool) – Zoom to fit

Select zoom tool and “draw a selection” around desired area to zoom into that area

Press and hold “H” and click – Activates navigation box which is draggable.

Misc

(”X” key) – Toggle between foreground and background colors

(”D” key) – Set foreground and background to default. Black and White

(Control + Backspace) – Fill selection with background color

(Alt + Backspace) – Fill selection with foreground color

(Spacebar) – Activates the “hand” tool for panning and navigation in a document

Masks

Make sure you have a mask on a layer by clicking the add layer mask button…

(Shift + Click on MASK icon) – Disables mask

(Alt + Click on MASK icon) – Show mask at full size

(Control + Alt + Click on some layer icon) – Subtract new selection from mask selection

(Control + Shift + Click on some layer icon) – Add new selection from mask selection

Layers

(Control + J) – Copy selection into a new layer

Drag layer and let it go on top of the “new layer” icon – Create a duplicate layer

(Control + Click in between to layers) – Create a clipping mask from top layer to bottom layer