Keyboard shortcuts make digital scrapbooking faster. How many keyboard shortcuts do you know for Photoshop (PS) or Photoshop Elements (PSE)? If the answer is just a few or none at all, then this list is for you. You may be wondering what a keyboard shortcut is. In most software, PS and PSE included, there are combinations of keys you can press to use features of the program instead of using the menus with your mouse. Why would you want to use keyboard shortcuts? Simply put, it's much faster.
This article will list some of my most-used keyboard shortcuts for both PS and PSE. Most are not specific to the version of PS or PSE, but a few are. Any difference between versions will be noted.
PSE Keyboard Shortcuts
Spacebar – Activates the hand tool (You must hold the spacebar down in order to keep the hand tool active)
Ctrl + Z – Undo (Hitting this shortcut multiple times will continue to undo to previous steps/actions)
Ctrl + Y – Redo (Recommits the last step you may have undone)
Ctrl + S – Save
Ctrl + Alt + S – Save As
Ctrl + G – Groups selected layer with layer below (The grouped layer takes on the shape of the layer beneath. This is very handy when using layout templates.)
Left Bracket – Brush size smaller (This works for all tools that utilize some sort of brush, including the paintbrush tool and the eraser tool.)
Right Bracket – Brush size larger (This works for all tools that utilize some sort of brush, including the paintbrush tool and the eraser tool.)
V – Activates the move tool.
M – Activates the marquee tool
B – Activates the paintbrush tool
E – Activates the eraser tool
Z – Activates the zoom tool
T – Activates the type tool
X – Swaps foreground color for background color in color swatches
D – Sets foreground color and background color back to default colors in color swatches
Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts
All of the shortcuts listed for PSE above work exactly the same in Photoshop, except for the following exceptions:
Ctrl + Z – Undo and Redo (Hitting the shortcut once will undo your previous action. Hitting it again will redo the last undo)
Ctrl + Alt + Z – Undo to history (Hitting this shortcut multiple times will continue to undo to previous actions)
Ctrl + Alt + G – Creates a clipping mask (The clipped layer takes on the shape of the layer directly below. For versions CS and earlier, use Ctrl + G)
For Mac Users
Replace Ctrl with Cmd, and Alt with Opt in all of the shortcuts above.