Photoshop Shortcuts

When you're working on large Photoshop projects you can expect to spend several hours to several days getting everything just right. The more keyboard shortcuts you keep in memory, the faster you can get the job done. I'm the first to admit that I haven't committed very many shortcuts to memory. Old habits are hard to break. I decided to put together a list of time saving shortcuts to save both you and me some time. I haven't included every single keyboard shortcut here but I've tried to include the most important shortcuts in this article. I put the most common shortcuts at the top. Those are the one's which I find to be the most useful on a daily basis. If you're using a Mac, the Ctrl represents the Command key and Alt represents the option key.

Photoshop Shortcuts

Most Common Shortcuts

These are the shortcuts which you will find the most useful during your daily Photoshop routine.

Zoom In/Out
Fit to Screen
Actual Pixels
Set Foreground/Background Colors to Default
Swap Foreground/Background Colors
Sample Color
Brush Size
Brush Hardness
Next / Previous Brush
Image Size
Canvas Size
Transform
Transform Again
Content Aware Scale
Quick Mask
Refine Mask
Select All
Deselect
Reselect
Select Inverse
New Layer
New Layer via Copy
New Layer via Cut
Merge Layers
Merge Visible Layers
Select All Layers
Group Layers
Ungroup Layers
History Forward
History Back
Last Filter
Rulers
Show Target Path
Show Grid
Show Guides

Ctrl+ / Ctrl-
Ctrl+0
Ctrl+1
D
X
Ctrl+Click
] / [
} / {
. / ,
Alt+Ctrl+I
Alt+Ctrl+C
Ctrl+T
Shift+Ctrl+T
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+T
Q
Alt+Ctrl+R
Ctrl+A
Ctrl+D
Shift+Ctrl+D
Shift+Ctrl+I
Shift+Ctrl+N
Ctrl+J
Shift+Ctrl+J
Ctrl+E
Shift+Ctrl+E
Alt+Ctrl+A
Ctrl+G
Shift+Ctrl+G
Shift+Ctrl+Z
Alt+Ctrl+Z
Ctrl+F
Ctrl+R
Ctrl+Shift+H
Ctrl+'
Ctrl+;

Tool Shortcuts

Here is a quick list of tool shortcuts in Photoshop.

Move Tool
Crop/Slice
Hand Tool
Rotate
Zoom
Screen Mode
Brush/Pencil
Healing Tools
Gradient / Paint Bucket
Clone / Pattern Stamps
Lasso (all types)
Rectangular / Elliptical Marquee
Quick Selection / Magic Wand
Count / Note / Eyedropper / Sampler / Ruler
History Brush
Pen
Path / Direct Selection
Erasers
Sponge / Dodge / Burn
Type Tools
Shape Tools
Preserve Transparency

V
C
H
R
Z
F
B
J
G
S
L
M
W
I
Y
P
A
E
O
T
U
/

Image Adjustment Shortcuts

Levels
Curves
Hue / Saturation
Color Balance
Black and White
Invert
Desaturate

Ctrl+L
Ctrl+M
Ctrl+U
Ctrl+B
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+B
Ctrl+I
Shift+Ctrl+U

Window Shortcuts

Actions
Brush
Color
Info
Layers

F9 / Alt+F9
F5
F6
F8
F7

Article by Emmett Lollis Jr. January 7th 2011

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