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121 Short cut keys to speed up your Photoshop retouching experience

Last update on: June 27, 2019

Working on photoshop is quite a part of our life now-a-days. Editing photos, creating designs, photo manipulation, graphic art works all can be done easily in Photoshop. While photoshop experts are likely to perform their task in winding speed those new to photoshop are quite a bit slow. But, here’s a secret, even a newbie can get an expert’s speed and amaze everyone with their skills. All you need to do is learn some shortcut keys and use them while working and you can speed up your editing game in a swish.
Here, to save you the trouble of hovering over every photoshop tool and menu options, we have listed a very useful list of photoshop shortcut keys (and believe us, they are supercool). So, let’s go

General

  1. New – Ctrl+N
  2. Open – Ctrl+O
  3. Save – Ctrl+S
  4. Save As – Ctrl+Shift+S
  5. Print – Ctrl+P
  6. Save for Web – Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S
  7. Export As – Ctrl+Shift+Alt+W
  8. Close – Ctrl+W
  9. Quit – Ctrl +Q

Tools

  1. Move – V
  2. Marquee – M
  3. Lasso – L
  4. Magic – W
  5. Crop – C
  6. Eyedropper – I
  7. Healing Tool – J
  8. Brush – B
  9. Stamp – S
  10. History Brush – Y
  11. Eraser – E
  12. Gradient – G
  13. Burn – O
  14. Pen – P
  15. Text – T
  16. Path Selection – A
  17. Shape – U
  18. Hand – H, Spacebar
  19. Zoom – Z
  20. Foreground Color – Alt + Backspace
  21. Background Color – Ctrl + Backspace, Ctrl + Delete
  22. Switch foreground & Background Color – X
  23. Default Color – D
  24. Quick Mask – Q
  25. Full Screen Mode – Tab +F +F
  26. Default Foreground/Background Colors – D
  27. Switch Foreground/Background Colors – X
  28. Toggle Standard/Quick Mask Modes – Q
  29. Toggle Screen Modes – F
  30. Toggle Preserve Transparency – /
  31. Decrease Brush Size – [
  32. Increase Brush Size – ]
  33. Decrease Brush Hardness – {
  34. Increase Brush Hardness – }
  35. Previous Brush – ,
  36. Next Brush – .
  37. First Brush – <
  38. Last Brush – >

Layer

  1. Window -> Layer – F7
  2. New Layer – Ctrl+Shift+N
  3. Duplicate Layer – Ctrl+J
  4. Layer via Cut – Ctrl+Shift+J
  5. Delete Layer – Delete
  6. Marge Layer – Ctrl+E
  7. Group Layer – Ctrl +G
  8. Ungroup Layers – Shift+Ctrl+G
  9. Hide Layers – Ctrl+,
  10. Lock Layers – Ctrl+/
  11. Merge Visible -Shift+Ctrl+E
  12. Opacity – Press number pad 1-9
  13. Export as PNG – Shift +Ctrl +’
  14. Export As -Alt+Shift+Ctrl+’
  15. Find right bottom position – Ctrl+Shift+1
  16. Channel Red – Ctrl+3
  17. Green – Ctrl+4
  18. Blue – Ctrl+5
  19. Move the selected point 1 unit – Arrow Keys
  20. Move the selected point 10 units – Shift+Arrow Keys
  21. Point sliders(Display highlights and shadows that will be clipped) -Option+drag black/white
  22. Set a point to the composite curve – Ctrl+click the image
  23. Set a point to the channel curves – Shift+Ctrl+click the image
  24. Ctrl+Click – Create new layer below selected layer

Image Adjustment

  1. Levels Ctrl+L
  2. Curves Ctrl+M
  3. Hue/Saturation Ctrl+U
  4. Color Balance Ctrl+B
  5. Black & White Alt+Shift+Ctrl+B
  6. Invert Ctrl+I
  7. Desaturate Shift+Ctrl+U
  8. Auto Tone Shift+Ctrl+L
  9. Auto Contrast Alt+Shift+Ctrl+L
  10. Auto Color Shift+Ctrl+B
  11. Image Size Alt+Ctrl+I
  12. Canvas Size Alt+Ctrl+C

Select

  1. All – Ctrl+A
  2. Deselect – Ctrl+D
  3. Reselect – Shift+Ctrl+D
  4. Inverse – Shift+Ctrl+I, Shift+F7
  5. All Layers – Alt+Ctrl+A
  6. Find Layers – Alt+Shift+Ctrl+F
  7. Refine Mask – Alt+Ctrl+R
  8. Feather – Shift+F6

Filter

  1. Last Filter – Ctrl+F
  2. Adaptive Wide Angle – Alt+Shift+Ctrl+A
  3. Camera Raw Filter – Shift+Ctrl+A
  4. Lens Correction – Shift+Ctrl+R
  5. Liquify – Shift+Ctrl+X
  6. Vanishing Point – Alt+Ctrl+V

View

  1. Proof Colors – Ctrl+Y
  2. Gamut Warning – Shift+Ctrl+Y

Zoom

  1. Zoom In – Ctrl++, Ctrl+=
  2. Zoom Out – Ctrl+-
  3. Fit on Screen – Ctrl+0
  4. Fit Artboard on Screen – 100% Ctrl+1, Alt+Ctrl+0

History

  1. Step Forward – Shift+Ctrl+Z
  2. Step Backward -Alt+Ctrl+Z
    Screen Mode
  3. Extras – Ctrl+H

Show

  1. Target Path – Shift+Ctrl+H
  2. Grid – Ctrl+’
  3. Guides – Ctrl+;
  4. Rulers – Ctrl+R
  5. Snap – Shift+Ctrl+;
  6. Lock Guides – Alt+Ctrl+;
  7. Info Panel – F8
  8. Layer – F7

Actions

  1. Actions – Alt+F9, F9
  2. Brush – F5
  3. Color – F6
  4. Info – F8

So, now that we have done all the listings for you, get your sleeves up and press the keyboard. You know that the practicing these keys is your part of the work, right? Go practice now.

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