- 5/28/2025
65 Pro-Level Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts You_re Not Using
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00:00From the Liquify filter, you can use the 4 Warp tool to push and pull pixels, but if
00:06you hold Alt as you paint, you will reconstruct those areas.
00:10As you move a layer, it sometimes may inadvertently snap to another object.
00:14This could be very annoying, but it's easy to fix.
00:17Hold Ctrl as you drag to temporarily prevent Photoshop from snapping.
00:22With the Clone Stamp tool, you can hold Alt and click to set a sample source.
00:27Then you can paint with those sampled pixels, but did you know that if you hold Alt, Shift
00:32and tap the bracket keys, you can scale the sample source.
00:37The left bracket key scales down.
00:39When I paint, I get a scaled down version of the sampled pixels.
00:43And you can hold Alt, Shift and tap on the greater than or less than key to rotate the
00:49sampled pixels.
00:50To reset, go into Window, Clone Source, then click the Reset button.
00:57I have a lot more pro-level Photoshop keyboard shortcuts you're probably not using.
01:01But before we get to them, I should let you know that I'm working with my MSI Creator Pro
01:06Z17 HX Studio laptop, and I will call out the Windows shortcuts, but the graphic on screen
01:12will show the Mac keyboard shortcuts as well.
01:15And check out the link below.
01:16You'll find my written post, a free graphic to help you learn the basic Photoshop keyboard
01:20shortcuts, and more info on the MSI Creator Pro Z17.
01:25My name is Jesus Ramirez, let's get started.
01:28When you go into Edit, Puppet Warp, you can click over your image to place these pins.
01:35Then you can drag the pins to reposition her body.
01:38With the pin selected, hold Alt to reveal a circle overlay and drag to rotate it.
01:44This shortcut gives you more control over your distortions.
01:47When you hold Alt and click on a layer thumbnail, Photoshop will zoom in to fit the entire content
01:53of this layer on screen, helping you see what a layer contains.
01:58Most movie and TV posters I work on are huge Photoshop files.
02:02For example, this poster I made for the TV show The Deadliest Catch is 7.4 gigabytes.
02:08I had to use a PSB, since PSDs only have a file size limit of 2 gigabytes.
02:14Opening a file this size or larger could take some time, especially on slower machines.
02:19If you only need to see the image to show to a client or share on social media, open the
02:23flattened version by going into File, Open, clicking on the document you want to open.
02:30Then hold Shift, Alt, and click on the Open button.
02:34Photoshop will ask to read the composite data instead.
02:37Press OK, and a flattened version of the file will open.
02:40A big warning here, saving the document will override the original file and you will lose
02:46all your layers.
02:48Instead, export the file by pressing Shift, Ctrl, Alt, W.
02:53Don't use the eraser tool when painting in Photoshop.
02:55The brush tip will not be the same, making it look pretty bad when you erase.
03:00Instead, hold down the tilde key as you paint, which is on the top left next to the number
03:061.
03:07This shortcut will allow you to erase with your currently active brush, giving you better results.
03:12If you're using an older version of Photoshop, press Alt, Shift, R to switch the brush's
03:18blending mode to Clear, allowing you to erase with the currently active brush.
03:23Also, as you paint, you can tap on the right arrow key to rotate the brush tip clockwise,
03:30or tap on the left arrow key to rotate counterclockwise.
03:34Notice how both the brush preview and the angle input box reflect these changes as I tap on
03:40these keys.
03:41When you're painting, there is no need to switch over to the eyedropper tool.
03:46Just hold Alt to enable the eyedropper tool temporarily, and you can click to select any
03:51color from your image.
03:53Here's another cool trick.
03:54You can minimize the Photoshop application frame, hold Alt to enable the eyedropper tool, click
04:00inside the canvas, and drag out.
04:03This will allow you to select colors from outside of Photoshop, including your browser.
04:07Then you can paint with the color you chose.
04:10This next keyboard shortcut gave me so many headaches when I was learning Photoshop.
04:14If you have a painting tool active, and press the caps lock key, the brush preview will disappear,
04:20and you will only see a crosshair.
04:22I spent so much time trying to figure out what happened to my brush preview the first time
04:27I came across this feature.
04:28I thought there was something wrong with Photoshop.
04:30I even uninstalled it several times trying to get it to work.
04:34It was so frustrating, and back then, there was no YouTube to look for solutions.
04:39But remember, if you see the crosshair cursor, tap the caps lock key to bring back the brush
04:44preview.
04:45There is no need to uninstall Photoshop.
04:47If you wanted to select the iris, you can start by enabling the elliptical marquee tool from
04:52the toolbar or pressing Shift-M.
04:56Holding the Shift key as you press, a toolbar shortcut will toggle between the nested tools.
05:03Then you could hold Shift and drag to create a perfect circle around the iris.
05:08If necessary, hold the spacebar to move the selection as you're making it.
05:12I'm currently holding the mouse button, Shift, and the spacebar.
05:16After you release the mouse button, we can subtract from this selection using an intersection.
05:22Hold Alt and Shift.
05:24Notice the X icon on the cursor.
05:27The X indicates that we are now intersecting the selection.
05:31Drag to create a circle around the top and bottom of the eye.
05:34Again, you can hold the spacebar to move the selection as you make it.
05:38When you release, the selected pixels will only be those inside your second selection,
05:44giving you a perfect selection around the iris.
05:46By the way, if these Photoshop keyboard shortcuts are helpful to you, hit like and subscribe.
05:51It really helps out the channel if you do.
05:55Sometimes you may need to freehand a selection by using the lasso tool.
05:58You can simply drag over your image to make the selection.
06:02But if you reach an area where the polygonal lasso tool will be best, you can temporarily switch
06:07to it by holding Alt and then you can continue making selections by defining straight edges
06:13as you click.
06:15If you need to go back into the lasso tool, simply click, hold down the mouse button and
06:20release the Alt key and continue freehanding your selection.
06:24When you have a selection active, press Ctrl D to deselect.
06:28You can then continue working on your image.
06:31Photoshop remembers the last active selection you had.
06:35Even after applying several other adjustments, you can bring it back by pressing Ctrl Shift
06:40D.
06:42There is no need to waste time creating it again.
06:44You can load the luminosity of an image by pressing Ctrl Alt 2.
06:49This selection targets the bright pixels.
06:52If you create a fill layer, you will see that the red pixels appear over the bright areas.
06:57To target the dark pixels, load the luminosity again by pressing Ctrl Alt 2, then invert the
07:04selection by pressing Ctrl Shift I.
07:07When you create a new fill layer, you will see that the blue pixels now target the dark
07:12areas.
07:13As I mentioned earlier, I'm working with the MSI Creator Pro C17 HX Studio, the laptop I use
07:20to create on the go.
07:21It has the latest 13th generation Intel i9 HX CPU and the NVIDIA RTX 4070 Studio.
07:28You can do so much with it, including editing high resolution videos, 3D design, and of course,
07:35edit in Photoshop.
07:36The screen is a 17-inch Quad HD resolution IPS display covering 100% of the DCI-P3 color profile,
07:46making it perfect for color accurate tasks.
07:49It has a 16 by 10 golden ratio, so you get a larger working area, which I always need.
07:55It also has a touch screen so you could use your finger or the MSI pen.
07:59I've been using this laptop for almost a year and have no issues.
08:03MSI is currently running a promotion, so it's the perfect time to get a new laptop.
08:08Check out the link below for all the details.
08:11When you create a selection, press the Q key to enter the Quick Mask mode.
08:15By default, anything that is red is not selected.
08:19You can then paint with white to select or paint with black to deselect.
08:25Then you can press the Q key again to return to the marching ants.
08:29Best of all, you can apply filters to the Quick Mask.
08:32For example, after creating a selection, press Q, then go into Filter, Blur, and choose Gaussian
08:40Blur.
08:41This will give you a visual representation of how a feather or blur will affect the edges
08:47of the selection.
08:49When you apply the blur, you can press Q again to return to the selection, and when I create
08:53a mask, you will see the blurred edges.
08:56By the way, this is my preferred method to feather a selection, but there's actually a
09:01shortcut to do it as well.
09:03After creating a selection, press Shift-F6 to bring up the feather selection window.
09:09Then type in a blur amount, and press OK.
09:11The downside here is that you don't get a visual representation of how the feather or
09:16blurring affects the selection.
09:18Immediately after using most adjustments, filters, or tools, you can press Ctrl-Shift-F
09:24to reduce the effect, and in some cases, change the blending mode.
09:28Keep in mind that the fade command is only available immediately after you apply your changes.
09:33If you do anything else in between, including saving, you won't be able to use it.
09:38From the toolbar, click on the three-dot icon and choose Edit Toolbar.
09:43Then hold Shift and click on Done.
09:46This will add a banana to your toolbar.
09:48It doesn't do anything, but it's a fun Easter egg and a good prank to play on a friend.
09:52With the Move Tool active, hover over a layer and hold Ctrl to see the bounding box.
09:58When you hover outside the layer, you'll see the labels showing the distance between
10:02the layer's edge and the canvas's edge.
10:06This is a great visual aid to help you align your layers.
10:09When working in Photoshop and you feel like you need to start from scratch, don't undo
10:13multiple times or close and reopen the file.
10:17Instead, press F12 to revert the image to the last time you saved it or how it looked when
10:23you first opened it.
10:24When multiple documents are open, you can press Ctrl-Alt-P to close all but the currently
10:31active document.
10:32I use the following keyword shortcut all the time.
10:35I like to call it the whoopsie-daisy key because when you're working in Photoshop and
10:39you make a mistake, or a whoopsie-daisy as I like to call it, you can press the Escape
10:44key to exit, making it all good.
10:47For example, if you're using the Crop Tool and decide you no longer want to crop, press
10:52the Escape key to exit the crop overlay.
10:55Or if you open a dialog box by mistake, hit Escape to close it without applying the adjustment.
11:01It even works on the start screen when you first open Photoshop.
11:04You can just hit Escape to close it.
11:06Talking about whoopsie-daisys, if things go wrong and you have to reset the Photoshop
11:10preferences, press Ctrl-Alt-Shift immediately after clicking to open Photoshop.
11:16And I mean immediately after.
11:18You have to be fast.
11:19If you do it right, this window will come up and ask you if you want to delete the Photoshop
11:24setting file.
11:25If you click yes, you will delete all your custom settings and preferences including
11:30workspace, tool settings, and other configurations.
11:33On most dialog boxes, you can hold the Alt key to turn the Cancel button into a Reset button.
11:41Clicking on it will reset the settings to what they were when you first opened it.
11:45With the Move tool, you can press Ctrl-R to enable the rulers.
11:49Then you can drag from the rulers to create these visual aids that do not show up in your
11:54final image called guides.
11:57If you hold Alt and click on a vertical guide, Photoshop will turn it into a horizontal guide.
12:03And if you hold Alt and click on a horizontal guide, it will turn it into a vertical one.
12:09You can hold Alt, Shift and click on multiple guides to select them.
12:13And while holding those keys, you can drag to move them.
12:17If you double click on a guide, you will bring up the Preferences panel to the section that
12:22controls the settings for all the guides.
12:25But if you hold Alt, Shift and double click on a guide, Photoshop will bring up the Edit Selected
12:32Guides dialog box.
12:34From here, you can set the color and location.
12:37By default, it uses pixels, but you can type percentages like 75% and press OK.
12:46Photoshop will then place this new red guide 75% away from the left edge.
12:53100% will of course place the guide at the right edge of the canvas.
12:58Here's a set of keyboard shortcuts you must commit to memory.
13:00Press the D key to set your foreground color and background colors to default, which are
13:05black and white.
13:06Tapping on the X key swaps your foreground color and background colors.
13:11Black is currently my foreground color and white is my background color.
13:15If you press Alt and backspace, you'll fill the entire active layer with the foreground color.
13:21If you have an active text or shape layer, it will fill those objects with the foreground
13:26color, leaving the transparent areas intact.
13:29The same is true when you press Ctrl and backspace to fill with the background color, which is
13:34currently white.
13:35But did you know that by adding the Shift key to either of these keyboard shortcuts, you'll
13:40only fill the opaque pixels.
13:43For example, holding Alt, Shift and backspace will fill with black on the pixels that are not
13:50transparent.
13:51It will no longer fill the entire layer.
13:53If you press Ctrl, Alt, Backspace, Photoshop will fill with history.
13:59And what is history?
14:01If you go into Window, History, you will see these recorded actions called history states.
14:07Think about it this way.
14:08Anytime you hit undo, you go back one history state.
14:12The first history state on top is the original image.
14:16What the image was like when it was first opened.
14:19If you apply a blur to this layer, you will see a new Gaussian blur history state.
14:25And if you desaturate the layer by pressing Ctrl, Shift, U, Photoshop will create a new desaturate
14:33history state.
14:34Now if you make a selection and fill with history by pressing Ctrl, Alt, Backspace, Photoshop will
14:42fill with content from an earlier state of the image.
14:46In this case, it uses the original image because that is the history source I have active.
14:53This is what this history brush icon represents in this box.
14:57But you can move it to any other history state by clicking on the empty space.
15:01Now when you fill with history, Photoshop will use the blurred version of the image to fill,
15:08before it was desaturated.
15:09In the layers panel, you will see all your layers.
15:12You can hide the currently active layer by pressing Ctrl, comma, and you can enable it
15:17again by using the same shortcut.
15:19To activate another layer, you can click on it.
15:23And you can hold Ctrl and click to select multiple non-consecutive layers.
15:28Or you can hold Shift and click on two layers.
15:32And Photoshop will select all the layers in between.
15:35But did you know you could do all this without using your mouse or clicking?
15:39You can hold Alt and tap the left bracket key to activate the layer below the currently
15:45active layer.
15:46And tap the right bracket key to activate the layer above.
15:50If you hold Shift, Alt, and tap on the left bracket key, Photoshop will add the layer below
15:55to the active selection.
15:58And holding Shift, Alt, and tapping on the right bracket key will add the layer above to
16:03the active selection.
16:04If you want to activate all layers, press Ctrl, Alt, A.
16:09When a layer is active, you can drag it up and down the layer stack.
16:13But it's faster and more efficient to use keyboard shortcuts.
16:16To move a layer up in the layer stack, hold Ctrl and tap on the right bracket key.
16:22And tap on the left bracket key to move it down.
16:24And if you hold Shift, Ctrl, and tap on the right bracket key, Photoshop will place the
16:30layer on top of the layer stack.
16:33However, if the layer is inside of a group, it will be placed on top of the stack in the
16:40group.
16:41Repeat the keyboard shortcut to move it outside of the group and put it on top of the layer
16:45stack.
16:46If your active layer has a layer mask, you can press Ctrl, Backslash to activate it.
16:50The focus, the white outline, is now on the mask.
16:54This shortcut is the same as clicking on the layer mask thumbnail.
16:58To activate the layer, press Ctrl, 2, which is the same as clicking on the layer thumbnail.
17:05When you have a layer active and no painting tool active, tap on any of the number keys to
17:10change the layer's opacity.
17:12For example, press 8 to set the opacity to 80%.
17:160 sets it to 100% opacity.
17:19When you quickly tap on two keys, Photoshop will apply that number value.
17:25For example, 3, 6 will set the opacity to 36%, 9, 4 to 94%, and 0, 0 to 0%.
17:36To change the fill, use the same keyboard shortcuts while holding the shift key.
17:41For example, Shift, 6 will set the fill to 60%.
17:46Press the forward slash key to lock the transparent pixels.
17:49Any adjustment you make will only affect the opaque pixels and not the transparent ones.
17:55Notice the active icon in the layers panel.
17:57You can click on it if you forget this shortcut.
17:59When working professionally, especially in a production environment, you have to name your layers.
18:05Here's a shortcut to help you speed up the process.
18:07As you edit a layer's name, press the Tab key to move to the layer below and edit its name.
18:13Holding Shift and pressing Tab will move you to the layer above.
18:17You probably know that you can use keyboard shortcuts to activate a tool.
18:21For example, the B key activates the brush tool, the Z key activates the zoom tool, and the
18:28W key activates the object selection tool, but you can use spring-loaded shortcuts to temporarily
18:33switch to a different tool by holding down its keyboard shortcut.
18:37For example, if you're painting with the brush tool, you can press and hold R to switch to
18:43the Rotate View tool, then click and drag to rotate your canvas.
18:48Now you can release the mouse button and release the R key.
18:53Photoshop will automatically switch back to the brush tool and you can continue painting.
18:57To reset your view, just use the whoopsie-daisy key, which of course is the Escape key.
19:04It always gets you out of trouble.
19:06By the way, if you press Ctrl K, it opens up the Preferences panel.
19:10From here, you can go into Tools and change the timing sensitivity for the spring-loaded shortcuts.
19:17Pressing Ctrl T allows you to transform a layer, but if you cannot see the transformation handles,
19:22press Ctrl 0 to zoom out and see the entire bounding box.
19:26With the small white circle selected, press Ctrl T to transform.
19:30Then click this checkbox in the Options part to enable the reference point.
19:35Drag it to the center, and type 20 in the Rotation input box to rotate the smaller circle
19:4120 degrees from where we placed the reference point.
19:45Then I'll press Enter to commit the changes.
19:48Now I can press Ctrl Alt Shift T, which will duplicate the circle onto a new layer and rotate
19:54it 20 degrees from the previous location, still rotating from the center.
20:00You can repeat this transformation until you go around the circle.
20:03This technique gets even more powerful when you combine it with the ability to do math and
20:08input boxes.
20:09To see how this feature works, check out my video, 10 Genius Photoshop Features You Didn't
20:14Know Existed.
20:15The link is below in the description.
20:18Sometimes the canvas color can be distracting from the image you're working on.
20:21So you can hold Spacebar and tap the F key to toggle between the canvas colors.
20:26You can add your own by right-clicking on the canvas and choosing Select Custom Color.
20:32But I prefer the presets.
20:33To change the entire interface to a new color theme, press Ctrl Shift F1 to make the interface
20:39darker, and to make it lighter, press Ctrl Shift F2.
20:43You can do the same thing from the Preferences panel by pressing Ctrl K.
20:48From the Interface tab, under Appearance, choose the color theme you like.
20:51Also, here's another fun Easter Egg.
20:54If you hold Ctrl Alt Shift and click on any of the four themes, the icons will change to
21:00icons of toast bread.
21:02Repeat this process, and the icons will turn to coffee cups.
21:06This has no effect on the look of your interface, but they're fun Easter Eggs to look at.
21:10To get an extremely precise rotation while using the free transform, go up to the Options
21:15bar and click inside the Rotate field.
21:19Then use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to rotate the layer in .01 degree increments.
21:26Holding Shift while pressing the arrow keys will rotate in .10 degree increments.
21:30When working with curves, you can move the points more precisely by using a keyboard shortcut.
21:36Simply select the point you want to move, then tap on the arrow keys on the keyboard to
21:40move it.
21:41And you can toggle to a different point by tapping the plus key to select the next one
21:46up, or the minus key to select the next one down.
21:49When you click with the Type tool in Photoshop, you'll get dummy text, and you can type anything
21:54you like.
21:55But did you know you can hold Ctrl to access the transformation handles?
21:59When you do, you can move the text layer, rotate, and scale while it remains editable.
22:05Has this ever happened to you?
22:07You click to create a new text layer, but activate another one instead.
22:11If this happens to you, don't create a new layer far away and drag it back.
22:16Instead, hold Shift and click.
22:18Photoshop will create a new text layer where you clicked even if another text layer is directly
22:23below it.
22:24Quickly change the font size, highlight the text, hold Ctrl, Shift, and tap on the greater
22:30than key to make the text larger.
22:33That's the same key as the period.
22:35Or tap the less than key to make it smaller, which is the same key as the comma.
22:40From the Properties panel, you have these options to style your text, but it's much faster to
22:45use keyboard shortcuts.
22:47Start by selecting your text, then style it with one of these keyboard shortcuts.
22:53Ctrl, Shift, K to capitalize, Ctrl, Shift, U to underline, Ctrl, Shift, B to bold, and Ctrl,
23:01Shift, I to make it italics.
23:04By the way, if your typeface has a bold weight or italics, Photoshop will select it from the
23:09drop them when applying these shortcuts.
23:12If it doesn't, it will apply a faux bold or italics, which is a simulation of these effects
23:18and could create issues like inconsistent weight in slants or printing and rendering problems.
23:24I'm not saying not to use them, just something for you to keep in mind.
23:28Notice that from the Properties panel, we can see all the formatting buttons enabled that
23:32we applied.
23:33To quickly reset them all to default, double click on the text layer thumbnail to select
23:37the text, and press Ctrl, Shift, Y. Everything returns to default, and all the buttons are
23:43now disabled.
23:44Now, let's adjust the letting, but first, expand the character properties by clicking
23:49on the three-dot icon in the Properties panel.
23:52The corresponding controls are here.
23:54To change the space between the lines, select your text, then hold Alt and tap the down arrow
24:00key to increase the space between the lines.
24:03You can tap on the up arrow key while holding Alt to move the text up.
24:07Notice the values updating in the Properties panel as I use this keyboard shortcut.
24:11Do you see that?
24:12If you forget the keyboard shortcut, use this dialog box instead.
24:15Now select a few characters.
24:17Hold Shift, Alt and tap up or down on the arrow keys to adjust the baseline shift.
24:24It moves the selected characters up and down relative to the baseline of the text.
24:28To change the kerning, which is the spacing between two characters, click where you want to create
24:33the space.
24:34Then hold Alt and tap on the left or right arrow keys to decrease or increase the space.
24:40When working with paragraphs, you will see hyphens breaking up the words.
24:44To disable the hyphens, double click on the text layer thumbnail to select it all.
24:48Then press Shift, Alt, Control, H. And you can bring back the hyphens by using the same
24:53keyboard shortcut.
24:55You can save an HTML file containing a list of all Photoshop keyboard shortcuts, even the
24:59custom shortcuts you have set.
25:01To open and save this HTML file, press Ctrl Alt Shift K to open the keyboard shortcuts panel.
25:08Then under the keyboard shortcuts tab, press the summarize button and select the location
25:14and name for your file and press save.
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