10 Time-Saving Photoshop Shortcuts

  1. Adjust brush size. With the Brush Tool activated, rather than accessing the dropdown menu on top of the screen, press the best bracket key, ], to increase how big the brush along with the left bracket key, [, to decrease.
  2. Adjust brush hardness. Along with size, brush hardness frequently has to be adjusted. Holding shift + ] (right bracket key) increases the hardness with the brush while holding shift + [ (left bracket key) will reduce the hardness. Now you can maintain the brush tip where it belongs, in the heart of your image, instead of making frequent trips up to the properties bar.
  3. Copy to a new layer. Again, keep the pointer around the artboard. Duplicating a layer is actually pressing CTRL + J (PC) or Cmd + J (Mac). This will build a copy with the active layer within the layers palette. It will also copy an engaged selection onto a brand new layer, leaving the existing layer intact. Also, pressing CTRL+ Shift + J (PC) or Cmd + Shift + J (Mac) will cut the actual active selection from the active layer and paste it onto a brand new layer. If you name your entire layers, simply adding the ALT (PC) or Option (Mac) critical for either of such combinations will open the New Layer dialog box so you can name the new layer for the fly. You can also adjust the opacity and blend mode of the new layer right within the New Layer dialog box, saving you an additional vacation to the Layers Palette.
  4. Fill the layer or selection with color. Press CTRL + Backspace (PC) or Cmd + delete (Mac) to fill the layer with the present foreground color. Press ALT + Backspace (PC) or Option + delete (Mac) to fill the layer with the present background color. These same commands may also be used to fill some. Bonus: To change the foreground and background colors time for the default colors (black for your foreground and white for the background) simply press the D key.
  5. Undo. No need to look at the History palette. CTRL + Z (PC) or Cmd + Z (Mac) will undo a stride. Pressing this combination again will redo (or rather, enable you to get time prior to undoing). Need to go back further than the last step? Simply hold CTRL + Alt (PC) or Cmd + Option (Mac) and press Z. Every time you press the Z key, you are going to move backward one more step.
  6. The Hand Tool. Forget the scroll bars with the edges with the document window. To quickly navigate across the image, hold around the spacebar to temporarily activate the Hand Tool. Click and drag with all the Hand Tool to advance the document. To deactivate the Hand Tool, release the area bar.
  7. Favorite Tools. Learn the keyboard shortcuts to your favorite tools. For example B = Brush Tool, V = Move, J = Spot Healing Brush. As you become familiar with these, you may notice that teams of tools all share a similar shortcut key. For example, the Spot Healing Brush, the Healing Brush, the Patch Tool as well as the Red Eye Tool all share the identical shortcut key – the letter J. By pressing J, you’ll activate the last used tool in the group. To cycle, although other tools inside the group, hold Shift + the letter for that group of tools, along with the active tool will cycle to another tool within the group.

If you’re continually using a command that does not possess a keyboard shortcut, you can easily assign one. Go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Find the command on the list and assign the true secret combination you desire to use. If you try to assign a previously used combination, Photoshop asks if you want to reassign that key combination. This dialog box is also a good spot to learn what keyboard shortcuts are allotted to all commands.

  1. Layer Opacity. To quickly change the opacity in the current layer, simply press a number key. Pressing 5 = 50% opacity, press 3 = 30%, etc. To narrow the opacity to some percentage more specific when compared to a multiple of 10, press both numbers quickly. For example, pressing 5, 5 in quick succession set the opacity to 55%. (To get returning to 100%, quickly press 1, 0, 0.) Please note, this shortcut won’t work if one with the tools inside the second group is active.
  2. Zoom in and out. To zoom into a graphic, press CTRL and + or Cmd and +, and also to zoom out press CTRL and – (PC) or Cmd and – (Mac).
  3. Scrubby sliders. Most settings in Photoshop give you a slider to adjust to your liking.

Click and drag on the name of the setting to activate the Scrubby Slider. Sliding to the left or right will adjust the setting value up or down without needing to open the slider. You will know that a Scrubby Slider can be acquired whenever your cursor turns into a little pointing finger with arrows left and right.

Unfortunately, there is not any shortcut once and for all, old fashioned practice, but once you’ve memorized these shortcuts, you will be on the right path to finishing projects in record time! As anybody who sells their stock photos knows, you need to get the maximum revenue in each and every way possible.