Essential Photoshop shortcuts

Mastering these shortcuts will help you work smarter, save time, and graduate to true Photoshop guru level! (These are tips 14–42.)

• Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E will merge a copy of all Layers
• F Cycle through workspace backgrounds
• X Change your foreground and background colours
• D Reset foreground and background colours to black and white
• ] and [ Change your brush tip size
• Cmd/Ctrl+J Duplicate a layer or selection
• Space Bar Hold Space and drag to navigate around the image
• TAB Hides or shows all panels and tools
• Cmd/Ctrl+T Transform a layer
• Cmd/Ctrl+E Merge selected layer down, or merges several highlighted layers
• Cmd/Ctrl/Ctrl+Shift+Opt+S Save for web & devices
• Cmd/Ctrl+L Bring up levels box
• Cmd/Ctrl+T Open Free Transform tool
• Cmd/Ctrl+M Open Curves
• Cmd/Ctrl+B Edit Colour Balance
• Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Opt+C Scale your image to your preferred state
• Cmd/Ctrl+Opt+G Create clipping mask
• Cmd/Ctrl+0 Fit on screen
• Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+>/< Increase/decrease size of selected text by 2pts
• Cmd/Ctrl+Option+Shift->/< Increase/decrease size of selected text by 10pts
• ]/[ Increase/decrease brush size
• Shift+F5 Fill the selection
• }/{ Increase/decrease brush hardness
• ,/. previous/next brush
• </> First/last brush
• Cmd/Ctrl+] Bring layers forward
• Cmd/Ctrl+[ Send layer back
• Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+[ Send layer to bottom of stack
• Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+] Bring layer to bottom of stack