Photoshop Ninja » Shortcuts – Categorised sets

Essential Photoshop edit shortcuts

Photoshop Ninja — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:49:25 +0000

These Photoshop keyboard shortcuts are probably the most important ones you can learn – they are useful in any kind of Photoshop work and you will come back to them time and time again. If you are learning keyboard shortcuts, this is where you should start – any Photoshop Ninja should know these!

These are all accessible from menus, but it is so much quicker to use keyboard shortcuts that once you have started learning and using them you won’t look back!

Command+Z = Undo
Shift+Command+Z = Step forward through history
Option+Command+Z = Step backward through history
Shift+Command+F = Fade previous action
Command+C = Copy
Shift+Command+C = Copy merged layers (have any visible layer selected)
Command+V = Paste
Shift+Command+V = Paste Into
Shift+F5 = Fill
Shift+Backspace = Fill (brings up fill dialogue, very useful!)
Command+T = Free Transform
Shift+Command+T = Transform again

No related posts.

Apple Mac and Windows PC Photoshop keyboard shortcut differences

Photoshop Ninja — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 11:03:54 +0000

I’ve had a few comments since I’ve been writing this site about how I only ever show the Apple Mac Photoshop keyboard shortcuts – I am working on a solution to this (and update the whole site of-course, eek!). In the meantime, here are the simple differences – not too much to remember!

MAC – OPTION/ALT = PC – ALT

MAC – COMMAND/APPLE = PC – CTRL/CONTROL

PC users have always found it very amusing that Apple Macs only have one mouse button – and therefore no right mouse button click, although little do they know that pretty much any 2 button USB mouse will work on a Mac, along with their crazy Microsoft 20 button ergonomic 2 tone gun metal mouse (yes, they do the drivers for Macs too!).

Apple Mac users with a standard mouse have to press CTRL/CONTROL and click to get a right mouse button click, where-as PC users and Mac users with proper mice simply right click.

No related posts.

Creating a black layer mask instead of a white one the quicky way

Photoshop Ninja — Thu, 24 May 2007 13:08:35 +0000

It can be a little frustrating sometimes when you create layer masks that by default they apply as a white filled layer mask, meaning that the layer is not effected by it. Annoyed by having to keep selecting all and filling with black… you’ll like this one then!

To create a black filled layer mask straight away, simply Alt+Click on the layer mask icon. I love this tip, as it’s one I have only recently learned! Even the most experienced of Photoshop users can learn something new!! Alt and Command clicking around the interface of Photoshop can reveal all sorts of useful features hidden away, give it a go and see what happens!

No related posts.

Shortcuts for viewing and moving around your images quickly

Photoshop Ninja — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:47:05 +0000

It is so much quicker to navigate around you image using Photoshop keyboard shortcuts, plus it looks cool when people are looking over your shoulder!

Seriously though, these are useful for any user and should be amongst the first shortcuts you learn. You will never need to reach for that zoom tool again once you have these in your shortcut arsenal!

Apple+0
Fits image to screen

Double click zoom tool in main tool palette
Sets zoom level to 100%

Apple and +/-
Changes zoom in increments

Hold down Space
Temporarily swap active tool to hand tool

Hold down Space+Apple
Swaps active tool to zoom tool (zoom in)

Hold down Space+Apple+Option
Swaps active tool to zoom tool (zoom out)

Page Up or Page Down
Scroll up or down 1 screen height

Apple+Page Up/Page Down
Scroll left or right 1 screen width

Shift+Page Up/Page Down
Scroll up or down 10 units of current measurement

Apple+Shift+Page Up/Page Down
Scroll left or right 10 units of current measurement

Home
Move to top left of image

End
Move to bottom right of image

There are also some other ways to move around your image. The Navigator palette gives you a thumbnail of your image with various controls for moving around and zooming in on your image. It does steal some processing power though slowing things down a little and can steal valuable screen space (although it is resizable), so not so great for single monitor users. It is useful for more precise work in Photoshop, if you want to stay at a specific zoom level and get to certain areas of your image, rather than zooming out then zooming in on the new area.

You can also just type in a number in the zoom level field at the bottom left of your image if you want a precise zoom level quickly.

No related posts.

Image adjustment shortcuts

Photoshop Ninja — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 07:19:05 +0000

There are quite a few shortcuts you can use to bring up image adjustments, rather than fishing around in the Image>Adjustments menu. However I generally use adjustment layers that allow you to combine image adjustments in a non-destructive way, rather than these permanent adjustments, but they are sometimes useful to remember!

I have put the most useful ones at the top in bold, the rest you should learn at you leisure fellow Photoshop Ninjas!

Command+L = Levels
Command+M = Curves
Command+B = Colour Balance
Command+U = Hue and Saturation
Shift+Command+U = Desaturate
Command+I = Invert
Shift+Command+L = Auto Levels
Option+Shift+Command+L = Auto Contrast
Shift+Command+B = Auto Colour

No related posts.