Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop, first released in 1990, revolutionized digital image editing and became the industry standard. Its tools are so influential that “to Photoshop” is now synonymous with editing images! Photoshop processes over 90 million photos daily worldwide. Fun fact: the original Photoshop was sold for just $300 and fit on a single floppy disk. From basic tweaks to surreal art, Photoshop has shaped how we see the world, one pixel at a time—turning imagination into reality!

Shortcuts

Popular

WindowMacDescription
CtrlT
⌘T
Free Transform
`
`
(Hold down) Toggle between painting and erasing with the same brush
CtrlD
⌘D
Deselect selections
CtrlZ
⌘Z
Undo last command
[
[
Decrease Brush Size
]
]
Increase Brush Size
Shift[
⇧[
Decrease Brush Hardness
Shift]
⇧]
Increase Brush Hardness
←→
←→
Rotate the brush tip by 1 degree
Shift←→
⇧←→
Rotate the brush tip by 15 degrees
D
D
Default Foreground/Background colors
X
X
Switch Foreground/Background colors
Alt
⌥
Fit layer(s) to screen
CtrlJ
⌘J
New layer via copy
CtrlShiftJ
⌘⇧J
New layer via cut
Alt
⌥
Delete brush or swatch
Ctrl
⌘
Toggle auto-select checkbox in the Options bar with Move tool selected
CtrlAltP
⌘⌥P
Close all open documents other than the current document
Esc
⎋
Cancel any modal dialog window (including the Start Workspace)
Enter
⏎
Selects the first edit field of the toolbar
Tab
⇥
Navigate between fields
ShiftTab
⇧⇥
Navigate between fields in the opposite direction
Alt
⌥
Change Cancel to Reset

Use function keys

WindowMacDescription
F1
❌Start Help
❌
F1
Undo/Redo
F2
F2
Cut
F3
F3
Copy
F4
F4
Paste
F5
F5
Show/Hide Brush panel
F6
F6
Show/Hide Color panel
F7
F7
Show/Hide Layers panel
F8
F8
Show/Hide Info panel
F9
⌥F9
Show/Hide Actions panel
F12
F12
Revert
ShiftF5
⇧F5
Fill
ShiftF6
⇧F6
Feather Selection
ShiftF7
⇧F7
Inverse Selection

Selection tools

WindowMacDescription
Alt
⌥
(Tools) Cycle through hidden tools
V
V
Move tool / Artboard tool
M
M
Rectangular Marquee tool† / Elliptical Marquee tool
L
L
Lasso tool / Polygonal Lasso tool / Magnetic Lasso tool
W
W
Object Selection tool / Quick Selection tool / Magic Wand tool
C
C
Crop tool / Perspective Crop tool / Slice tool / Slice Select tool
I
I
Eyedropper tool† / Color Sampler tool / Ruler tool / Note tool
K
K
Frame tool
I
I
Eyedropper tool / 3D Material Eyedropper tool (ADD) / Color Sampler tool / Ruler tool / Note tool / Count tool
J
J
Spot Healing Brush tool / Healing Brush tool / Patch tool / Red Eye tool / Content-Aware Move tool / Red Eye tool
B
B
Brush tool / Pencil tool / Color Replacement tool / Mixer Brush tool
S
S
Clone Stamp tool / Pattern Stamp tool
Y
Y
History Brush tool / Art History Brush tool
E
E
Eraser tool† / Background Eraser tool / Magic Eraser tool
G
G
Gradient tool / Paint Bucket tool / 3D Material Drop tool
O
O
Dodge tool / Burn tool / Sponge tool
P
P
Pen tool / Freeform Pen tool / Curvature Pen tool
T
T
Horizontal Type tool / Vertical Type tool / Horizontal Type mask tool / Vertical Type mask tool
A
A
Path Selection tool / Direct Selection tool
U
U
Rectangle tool / Ellipse tool / Polygon tool / Line tool / Custom Shape tool
H
H
Hand tool
R
R
Rotate View tool
Z
Z
Zoom tool† Liquify
D
D
Default Foreground/Background colors
X
X
Switch Foreground/Background colors
Q
Q
Toggle Standard/Quick Mask modes
V
V
Artboard tool
/
/
Toggle Preserve Transparency
Shift[
⇧[
Decrease Brush Hardness
Shift]
⇧]
Increase Brush Hardness
,
,
Previous Brush
.
.
Next Brush
Shift,
⇧,
First Brush
Shift.
⇧.
Last Brush

View images

WindowMacDescription
CtrlTab
⌃⇥
Cycle through open documents
CtrlShiftTab
⌘⇧`
Switch to previous document
CtrlShiftW
⌘⇧W
Close a file in Photoshop and open Bridge
Q
Q
Toggle between Standard mode and Quick Mask mode
F
F
Toggle (forward) between Standard screen mode, Full screen mode with menu bar, and Full screen mode
ShiftF
⇧F
Toggle (backward) between Standard screen mode, Full screen mode with menu bar, and Full screen mode
SpaceF
SpaceF
Toggle (forward) canvas color
SpaceShiftF
Space⇧F
Toggle (backward) canvas color
Space
Space
Switch to Hand tool (when not in text-edit mode)
CtrlSpace
⌘Space
Switch to Zoom In tool
AltSpace
⌥Space
Switch to Zoom Out tool
ShiftEnter
⇧⏎
(in Navigator panel) zoom percentage box
PgUpPgDn
PgUpPgDn
Scroll up or down 1 screen
ShiftPgUpPgDn
⇧PgUpPgDn
Scroll up or down 10 units
HomeEnd
HomeEnd
Move view to upper-left corner or lower-right corner
\
\
Toggle layer mask on/off as rubylith (layer mask must be selected)

Use Puppet Warp

WindowMacDescription
CtrlShiftAltB
⌘⌥⇧B
Use the black-and-white adjustment
CtrlA
⌘A
Select all pins
CtrlD
⌘D
Deselect all pins
Shift
⇧
Select multiple pins
Esc
⎋
Cancel distortions

Use Select and Mask

WindowMacDescription
CtrlAltR
⌘⌥R
Select and mask
Ctrl2
⌘2
Target the layer
Ctrl\
\
Target the mask
CtrlI
⌘I
Invert a layer mask

Use for blending modes

WindowMacDescription
Shift+-
⇧+-
Cycle through blending modes
AltShiftN
⌥⇧N
Normal
AltShiftI
⌥⇧I
Dissolve
AltShiftQ
⌥⇧Q
Behind (Brush tool only)
AltShiftR
⌥⇧R
Clear (Brush tool only)
AltShiftK
⌥⇧K
Darken
AltShiftM
⌥⇧M
Multiply
AltShiftB
⌥⇧B
Color Burn
AltShiftA
⌥⇧A
Linear Burn
AltShiftG
⌥⇧G
Lighten
AltShiftS
⌥⇧S
Screen
AltShiftD
⌥⇧D
Color Dodge
AltShiftW
⌥⇧W
Linear Dodge
AltShiftO
⌥⇧O
Overlay
AltShiftF
⌥⇧F
Soft Light
AltShiftH
⌥⇧F
Hard Light
AltShiftV
⌥⇧V
Vivid Light
AltShiftJ
⌥⇧J
Linear Light
AltShiftZ
⌥⇧Z
Pin Light
AltShiftL
⌥⇧L
Hard Mix
AltShiftE
⌥⇧E
Difference
AltShiftX
⌥⇧X
Exclusion
AltShiftU
⌥⇧U
Hue
AltShiftT
⌥⇧T
Saturation
AltShiftC
⌥⇧C
Color
AltShiftY
⌥⇧Y
Luminosity
AltShiftN
⌥⇧N
Set blending mode to Threshold for bitmap images, Normal for all other images