25 Awesome Keyboard Shortcuts for

Photoshop That You May Not Know

This is a list of the most useful default Photoshop keyboard shortcuts that you can use them to
speed up your workflow. Some of them are rarely mentioned, some are more common and some
are only available in Photoshop CS5. I hope everyone will find some new and useful shortcuts in
this article. So let"s get started!

1. Drag-Zoom
Command/Ctrl + Space + Click and Drag Left or Right. Fastest way to zoom in and out with one
keyboard shortcut (only in CS5 and only with GPU enabled).

2. HUD Color Picker

Alt + Shift + Right Click (Win) or Control + Option + Cmd + Click (Mac). Gorgeous color picker
with a color wheel (only in CS5 and only with GPU enabled). Preferences are under General tab.
3. Bird’s Eye View
Hold Down H + Click, Reposition View and Let Go of the Mouse to Zoom Back). Works great
with large images, when you need to work closely. Fast way to fit the image to screen and then
zoom back into another area with the previous zoom ratio quickly.

4. Brush Size & Hardness

Ctrl + Alt + Right Click (Win) or Control + Option + Click (Mac). Drag your mouse to right/left to
change the size and up/down to change the hardness. It only works with CS5 in both directions. In
CS4 only the size change works. You can change the color of the brush preview under
Preferences/Cursors. You also need GPU turned on under the Performance tab to be able to see the
brush preview.

5. Draw Straight Lines

Hold Down Shift. Works with nearly every drawing tool.

6. Move
Hold Down Command/Ctrl. Fastest way to move something quickly and then switch back to the
previous tool.
7. Pan (Shift + Space) and Zoom Simultaneously in all
Documents
Shift + Ctrl + Space (Win) or Shift + Command + Space (Mac). Best way to compare or work on
more than images at the same time.

8. Hide Panels
Hit Tab. You can always show them again by pressing Tab once more, or just simply hover over
the edges to show the panels and toolbar temporarily.

9. Full Screen Preview of Files From Mini-Bridge

Space and Then Arrow Keys. It works the same way as in Bridge. Make sure that you deselect the
images in MiniBridge or collapse the panel when you continue working in Photoshop.

10. Text Size

Command/Ctrl + Shift + . or , you can use it for selected text. It won’t work by only selecting the
text layer.

11. All Caps for Text

Command/Ctrl + Shift + K. Quick way to switch between lowercase and uppercase text. Make
sure you type without Caps lock to be able to use this.

12. Tracking and Kerning

Alt/Option + Left and Right Arrow Keys. Useful way to make equalize the distance between
characters. If you select a word, a line or a whole paragraph then you change the Tracking. If you
click between two characters you change the Kerning.
13. Leading
Alt/Option + Up and Down Arrow Keys. Quickly change the distance between selected lines.

14. Baseline Shift

Alt/Option + Shift + Up and Down Arrow Keys. Easy way to use one text layer but have different
positions for the text.

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15. Fill
Command/Ctrl + Backspace – Foreground Color, Alt/Option + Backspace – Background Color,
Shift + Backspace – Fill Options. Great way to fill color into selections or change the color of text
and vector shape layers.
16. Reset Any Dialog Box
Alt/Option + Click on Cancel. Instead of canceling a dialog box and returning to it try Reset and
save time and effort.

17. Changing Opacity and Fill Opacity

Numeric Keys, Shift + Numeric Keys. This will change the opacity and fill of the selected layer (or
even more than one layer at the same time in CS5) and it will change opacity and fill of the tool if
you select a drawing tool.

18. Invert Colors of Selected Layer or Layer’s Pixel Mask

Command/Ctrl + I. This is a fast way to invert visible parts of a layer if you invert the colours of
the layer mask.

19. Switch to Precise Cursors for Drawing Tools

Hit Caps Lock. If you don’t want to see the edges of the brush you can switch to precise mode
easily by having Caps lock on.

20. Reset Preferences

Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Win) or Command + Option + Shift (Mac) When Loading Photoshop. If you
want to start with the default settings and user interface hold down these buttons while Photoshop
is loading.

21. Switch Foreground/Background Colours

Press (X). Fast way to switch between the selected colour.

22. Mask View

Alt/Option + Click on a Layer Mask. Great way to clean up the mask after you save it from a
selection. Using it again will switch back to normal view again.

23. Disable Mask

Shift + Click on a Layer Mask. You can quickly show the original contents of the layer with this
keyboard shortcut. Using it again will enable the mask again.

24. Intersection of Selections

Alt/Option + Shift + Click With a Selection Tool Over Another Overlapping Selection. Easy way
to keep only a specific part of a selection.
25. Merge All Visible Layers to a New Layer
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E (Win) or Command + Option + Shift + E. If you want to keep all your layers
but you also need to merge them together to be able to use something you can convert them all into
one Smart object or use this keyboard shortcut to make a duplicate merged layer.

Bonus (Easter-Egg) Keyboard Shortcut

Alt/Option + Click on Panel options under the options of Layers panel.