On Mac: Assign a keyboard shortcut to 'Open as Layers in Photoshop.' Using the standard OS X shortcuts. Go to System Preferences Keyboard Shortcuts App Shortcuts and click the '+' button ( (be sure to type the menu command's name exactly). On Windows: Use the standard Windows accelerators: Alt-P E O O Enter. You could shorten that to three keystrokes, Alt-P E L, by creating the file TranslatedStrings.txt in the folder 'c: program files adobe adobe photoshop lightroom 5.7 resources en' containing the following line: '$$$/AgEditExternally/MenuCommand/ContextMenu/openAsLayers=Open as &Layers in Photoshop.' (If you're running LR in another language, find the appropriate TranslatedStrings.txt and change the corresponding line accordingly, using the '&' to highlight the desired shortcut letter.) You could shorten that to a single keystroke, e.g. Shift-F2, by using the free AutoHotkey.
To select all the layers between the currently active layer and the top layer, press Option-Shift. Or Alt+Shift+. — Option or Alt plus Shift and the period/full stop key.
While not as convenient as having a shortcut builtin to LR (much less having a general facility for defining your own shortcuts), these methods get the job done.
This guest post was submitted by Brian Auer from. The last article I wrote for dPS titled “” was taken in very well by all the wonderful photographers here.
Darren had the idea of creating a follow-up article that outlined additional shortcuts and keyboard commands in Photoshop, and naturally I was more than happy to whip something up. There were so many comments that brought up additional shortcuts on the last post, that 80% of the following tips came from all of you. It was great to see that level of contribution from the readers, and I learned a few very useful Photoshop tricks along the way. The other 20% of the following tips are some that weren’t mentioned at all in the last post, and I’ve even included a few side notes and mouse-related shortcuts.
Also, be sure to read all the way to the bottom — I have a question for you. Again, I’m using the commands for Photoshop CS3 running on Windows, but most of these should also work with Photoshop CS2 and some versions lower. So to start things off, I’m admitting defeat. In the last post, apparently I left out THE most useful shortcut in Photoshop. SPACEBAR (Temporary Hand Tool) — Hold down the spacebar to temporarily bring up the hand tool so you can move around while doing those zoomed-in edits.
Also, use the Ctrl modifier to zoom in, and the Alt modifier to zoom out. Essential Photoshop Shortcut Commands. F (Cycle Screen Modes) — Switch between normal screen, full screen with task bar without title bar, and full screen with black background. Works great when used in conjunction with Tab to hide toolbars — maximum working space, no distractions. X (Switch Colors) — Swap your foreground and background colors. Very handy when working with masks.
D (Default Colors) — Reset your foreground and background colors to black and white, respectively. Ctrl + ‘+’/’-‘ (Zoom In/Out) — Quickly zoom in or out without changing your current tool. Alt + Mouse Scroll (Zoom In/Out) — Fastest way to zoom — scroll up to zoom in, and scroll down to zoom out.
Ctrl + Alt + Z (Step Back) — Ctrl + Z is OK if you catch a mistake immediately after it happens, but this command will continue to march its way up the history tree. Ctrl + S (Save) — You should get in the habit of just hitting this combo on impulse about every 5 to 10 minutes. Also use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S to bring up the save for web dialog. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N (New Layer No Dialog) — Quickly insert a new empty layer on top of the active layer. Get rid of the Alt key to bring up the new layer dialog for more options. Useful Photoshop Shortcut Commands.
Shift + Click Mask (Enable/Disable Layer Mask) — When working with masks it’s typically done in small increments. Disabling the mask allows you to check the results of your masking against the original. Alt + Click Mask (Toggle Mask Visibility) — Doing this will bring up the mask as a grayscale image so you can see what you’re working with. Useful if you have areas that need to be filled in or smoothed out. Ctrl + Click Mask (Load Mask As Selection) — Selects the white part of the mask (grays are partially selected). Useful if you want to duplicate a mask or it’s inverse.
Using Ctrl + Click on a layer without a mask will select the non-transparent pixels in that layer. Ctrl + J (New Layer Via Copy) — Can be used to duplicate the active layer into a new layer. If a selection is made, this command will only copy the selected area into the new layer. Caps Lock (Toggle Cross Hairs) — Switch between the standard tool icon and a set of precision cross hairs. Useful for spot-on selections. Shift + Backspace (Fill Dialog) — Good time saver when working with masks.
Also, use the Ctrl + Backspace to fill with background color and Alt + Backspace to fill with foreground color. Ctrl + H (Hide Selection Lines) — When working with selections, use this command to hide the “marching ants” while keeping the selection.
Ctrl + I (Invert Selection) — Select the opposite of what is already selected. Also a good tool when working with mask creation. Ctrl + D (Deselect) — After working with your selection, use this combo to discard it. Side Note: When working with selections, they can be applied to a layer as a mask simply by adding a new layer mask using the little box-with-a-circle-inside icon at the bottom of the layer palette.
This also works with adjustment layers by automatically applying the selection to the mask. Handy Photoshop Shortcut Commands. Ctrl + G (Group Layers) — This command groups selected layers in the layer tree. Adding Shift to this combo will ungroup layers when the grouped layer is selected.
Ctrl + A (Select All) — Creates a selection around the entire canvas. Ctrl + T (Free Transform) — Brings up the free transform tool for resizing, rotating, and skewing the image using a dragable outline. Ctrl + E (Merge Layers) — Merges selected layer with the layer directly below it.
If multiple layers are selected, only those will be merged. Crtl + Shift + E (Merge Visible) — Merges all visible layers into one. Not recommended practice in typical photo editing because you’ll lose layer information. Ctrl + Alt + E (Stamp Down) — Merges all selected layers into one new layer. Add the Shift modifier to this combo and you’ll get a new layer containing a merged representation of all visible layers (handy for sharpening adjustments). Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R (Rotate Arbitrary Dialog) — bring up the rotate dialog to straighten out your horizon but it’s not typically used since we all take perfect photos, right?.
Side Note: Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) has the ability to straighten photos before they ever make it into Photoshop. When straightening, you draw a line you’d like as your horizontal and ACR will take care of the rotation and crop for you.
CTRL + ALT + DEL (Kill Photoshop) — Quite useful when Photoshop takes your computer hostage. Must have used the Ctrl + S command prior to the hostile takeover in order to prevent mental breakdown. What are your Top Photoshop Shortcuts?
So I think we’ve gathered a fairly comprehensive list of Photoshop shortcuts that are useful for us photographers. I agree with Knittenjen, creating shortcuts for actions is invaluable. The actions (and shortcuts I’ve created for them) that I use most are ‘save for web’, convert RGB to CMYK, and Save As Jpeg. It saves a few step each to just hit the shortcut. The other big shortcut is to create a Droplet for an action and put it on your desktop. Then you can drop an entire folder onto your Droplet, and it will perform the action to all the files in the folder. For example, you can compress all of the large files from your recent party to upload onto the web faster.
You just drop in the folder and walk away, and it will automatically open Photoshop, resize and compress each photo, then save it to a specified folder. Hi Guys, Can any of you help me with Photoshop CS5 on a mac please? I work with a mac in Photoshop CS5 and I’ve been looking on now to select a layer in the layer palette as it was once possible by hovering over the layer in the palette with the cursor, then clicking ctrl and clicking on the tracking pad and seeing the dotted selection line around the desired layer so I can use this exact shape to crop away at another but the feature isn’t there in CS5 it seems? Is there another way please guys? Cheers, Dan.
I’ll add my 2 cents worth. Check out this hour long workshop by Michael Ninness from the 2013 Adobe Max. There some real gems A bit of a side note, but gaming keyboards and mice are excellent peripherals for Photoshop. The Logitech G110 has a host of handy G-Keys which can be programed with shortcuts or macros. The newer G910 has less G-Keys, but lets you give every key a different colour so you can highlight your most used Photoshop keys, and they are very bright! There are lots of gaming mice, but I now use the G602.
It has six programable game/app detecting buttons, plus very quick and easy sensitivity switching for accurate placing of path points etc. Not as easy to use as a Performance MX, but more useful when you get used to it. Just think of a single repeat undo button in the bottom left corner? Switching workspaces, toggling Lazy Nezumi Pro on and off, tile and tab document windows etc. All via single key presses. It can really speed up your workflow.
One last thing I’ll mention are Firefox addons. Things like Open with Photoshop (via a right click) or pallet grabber. You’ll wonder how you managed before you had them. Dan May 18, 2012 04:16 am Hi Guys, Can any of you help me with Photoshop CS5 on a mac please?
I work with a mac in Photoshop CS5 and I've been looking on now to select a layer in the layer palette as it was once possible by hovering over the layer in the palette with the cursor, then clicking ctrl and clicking on the tracking pad and seeing the dotted selection line around the desired layer so I can use this exact shape to crop away at another but the feature isn't there in CS5 it seems? Is there another way please guys? Cheers, Dan. Subject957 January 11, 2012 12:33 am I agree with Knittenjen, creating shortcuts for actions is invaluable.
The actions (and shortcuts I've created for them) that I use most are 'save for web', convert RGB to CMYK, and Save As Jpeg. It saves a few step each to just hit the shortcut. The other big shortcut is to create a Droplet for an action and put it on your desktop. Then you can drop an entire folder onto your Droplet, and it will perform the action to all the files in the folder. For example, you can compress all of the large files from your recent party to upload onto the web faster. You just drop in the folder and walk away, and it will automatically open Photoshop, resize and compress each photo, then save it to a specified folder. Knittinjen December 30, 2010 12:50 am I'm not a photographer but digital designer - I see that some of the shortcuts must change, I use CS5, and Ctrl+Alt+I brings up the image size dialog box (which I use a lot) and Ctrl+Shift+I is select inverse (THANKS I do this ALL the time, but did not know the shortcut!!).
One that is SUPER handy for me is Ctrl+1 (the numeral 1) brings to 100% - not sure that would matter as a photographer, but as a digital designer, I have to know that things are not blurry or otherwise impaired at 100%, so that is SUPER helpful - not sure if it was there in previous versions - doesn't work in PSE 6 is all I know for sure. This list is SOOOO helpful!
Gordy B July 14, 2009 04:51 am Hi, is it cheating to give short sequences.? From the layers palette, select a layer, then ctrl + click the new layer icon (cmd on mac) and the new layer appears 'under' the selected one. To create more screen space, 'F' to view full screen, Tab to remove all palettes, then F7 to bring up just the layers palette. When trying our filters on a layer (overlay, luminosity, etc), make sure you've got the move tool V selected and then hit shift and + / - to scroll through the filters. Also, I set up my own shortcut in preferences.
Ctrl+alt+cmd (Mac) to flatten an image. PRH September 28, 2007 12:01 pm Of the ones already listed, I use ctrl+T, Tab, Ctrl+0 and spacebar.
The ones I.most often. use are: Ctrl+L, brings up the levels dialogue box. Q, toggles quick mask. I also use ctrl+spacebar+left mouse click (increase magnifcation) and ctrl+alt+spacebar+left mouse click (decrease magnifcation). Used these ones before I had a scroll button on the mouse. Hold down the ctrl key to move selection.
Hold down ctrl+alt keys to move and copy selection. I work with a very old version of photoshop (v6-shocking I know!) but I'm sure these shortcuts will still be there in later versions. Kai Chan Vong September 26, 2007 04:07 pm My fav. Presses are:- ALT + Click - to move from layer to layer at the click (kinda fails a bit when things are grouped but still v handy) I also think the best thing to do is to customise your version of photoshop as opposed to learning someone else's keys. Everyone seems to be learning the defaults - and that's great, but hosting your config file online or on your usb pen and then simply using those key presses can be far easier and faster. Everyone has their own way of doing things of course! Sharon September 26, 2007 01:24 pm Thanks for those - especially the mask shortcuts.
I am an Elements user and don't have masks built in but use Grant's Tools to give me this function. I just tested the shortcuts and they work with my set up. Another shortcut that I use a bit (being a scrapbooker) is Ctrl-Shift-J when you are clicked into a text box to fully justify the text(not sure if it works the same way for Photoshop proper). My main shortcuts: Ctrl-J to duplicate a layer Ctrl-Shift-N to creat a new layer (thanks for letting me know how to avoid the dialogue box) Ctrl- / (and Ctrl-Shift- / )to promote/demote layers I use the Spacebar (temporary hand tool) a lot now too, since reading about it in your article.
Pyko September 26, 2007 12:27 pm a nice selection of shortcuts!! But its so hard to cut down to 3!! The ones I would pick are.
Ctrl+D & Ctrl+T (from 18 tips page) & D I'm tempted to include the save/history, but since other applications use similar shortcuts i decided to choose the more 'unique' shortcuts to photoshop. There is one 'shortcut' that is missing.and that is when you are selecting with your mouse hold down 'space' so move the selection (rather than resizing it). I've also written a post for photoshop shortcuts, feel free to have a look::).
Miguel Tavares September 26, 2007 10:40 am If you create a new empty layer and press Cmd+alt+Shift+E, the visible layers will be merged into the new one, leaving them intact for further editing. Pressing Alt will turn the Cancel button into a very useful 'Reset'. This works in several adjustments. Cmd+Alt+L(/M/U/etc.) will open the adjustment window with the last used values preloaded.
![Keyboard Shortcut For Merging Layers Photoshop Mac Keyboard Shortcut For Merging Layers Photoshop Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125390705/472411033.png)
You can use the spacebar to drag a marquee selection while making it; once you release the key, the marquee tool will continue its job. Thank you for the list. NikonnooB September 26, 2007 09:15 am This was great info. Thanks for compiling it all. One thing to add: you mention that you can Alt/Option scroll wheel to Zoom, whereas, regularly, the scroll wheel just navigates up and down in an image. It might be useful to note that in the PreferencesGeneral tab, this can be reversed using 'Zoom with Scroll Wheel'. This will cause the regular scroll wheel to zoom, and the Alt/Option scroll wheel to navigate up and down.
Also, in the Mask Visibility area, Shift+Alt/Option will allow you to view your mask as an overlay on your layer. That way, you can see the Quickmask style overlay feature to refine your mask, while actually working on the Layer Mask.
This is especially useful on intricate selections. As for my 3 most used (hard to cut it to just 3), I'd say X, D, and Ctrl/Cmd D. Of course, if I could add 2, I'd add Alt/Opt Backspace/Delete, and Ctrl/Cmd Backspace/Delete. Sheesh, I see why you chose to use just Windows commands! GET DAILY free tips, news and reviews via our RSS Feed Sign up to the free DPS PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE Subscribe. Guaranteed for 2 full months. Pay by PayPal or Credit Card.
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