Photoshop keyboard shortcutsKeyboard shortcuts can really be such a huge time saver that after awhile you will have a shortcut for everything. In photoshop there are preset shortcuts and you can also create your own shortcuts. Here are some of the most common photoshop shortcuts:

General Shortcuts

Hand Tool  –> Spacebar
Apply Last Filter –> Cmd-F
Switch between open documents –> Ctrl-Tab

Viewing
Fit on Screen –> Double-click on Hand tool or Cmd-0
Zoom in –> Cmd-Space-Click or Cmd-Plus(+)
Zoom out –>Option-Space-Click or Cmd-Minus(–)
Rotate through full screen modes –> F

Layer Shortcuts

Create new layer –>  Cmd-Shift-N
Delete Layer –> Delete key (while in the Move tool)
Clone layer –> as you move it Option-Drag
Switch to layer below/above –> Option-[ or Option-]

Type Shortcuts

Select all text –> on layer Double-Click on T thumbnail in Layer palette
Increase/Decrease size of selected text by 2pts–> Cmd-Shift->/<

Increase/Decrease size of selected text by 10 pts  –> Cmd-Option-Shift->/<

Shortcuts for Tools in Photoshop

Using the tool shortcuts to quickly switch between tools can save you a huge amount of time. This is one of the first things I memorized that really helped cut my production time down. To switch between the different tools within groups, click the Shift key and then the letter.

For example click Shift G to toggle between the Gradient tool and Paint Bucket.

V –> Move
M –>Rectangular Marquee, Elliptical Marquee
L –> Lasso tools
W –> Quick Selection, Magic Wand
C –> Crop
K –> Slice tools
J –> Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush, Patch, Red Eye
B –> Brush, Pencil, Color Replacement
S –> Clone Stamp, Pattern Stamp
Y –> History Brush, Art History Brush
E –> Eraser tools
G –> Gradient, Paint Bucket
R –> Blur, Sharpen, Smudge
O –> Dodge, Burn, Sponge
P –> Pen tools
T –> Type tools
A –> Path Selection, Direct Selection
U –> Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Line, Custom Shape
N –> Notes tools
I –> Eyedropper, Color Sampler, Ruler, Count
H –> Hand
Z –> Zoom
X –> Switch Foreground and Background colors
D –> Default colors
Q –> Quick Mask Mode
F –> Cycle through screen modes

You can also create your own custom photoshop shortcuts, which I highly suggest for any action you see yourself repeating a few times a day. There are certain things I do a lot when designing an album like copying the layer style and pasting it to another layer. This is handy when applying drop shadows and other layer styles to a photo and wanting to repeat that with all of the other photos on the page. I set Shift + Cmd + C as copy layer style and Shift + Cmd + V to paste the layer style. You can also read how to create custom photoshop shortcuts here.

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