Teach Yourself Photoshop 4 in 14 Days

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Used in conjunction with the mouse, shortcut keys can increase your speed and accuracy 100%.

This appendix covers some of the more common and useful shortcut keys in Photoshop. By shortcut keys, I mean the key combinations that save you from having to select a command via menus. They are, at first, a little awkward. You might wonder at a few of the arrangements and why they picked certain keys, but if you start using these shortcuts, you will find that your time spent with Photoshop (or any application, for that matter) will become much more streamlined.

Note that most of these shortcut keys are listed on the right side of all menus. Also, to give yourself a little extra help, select File+Preferences+General. In this dialog box, select Show Tool Tips. When this feature is enabled, you can place your mouse pointer over a tool in the toolbox and (without clicking) a small tag momentarily appears, telling you the name of the tool and its hot key (the key that selects it).

Windows keys will be covered first, and then, later in this appendix, the corresponding Macintosh keys. The toolbox is covered first, and then commands as they appear in the menus--File menu, Edit menu, and so on, across the top of the screen.

Windows Shortcut Keys

Here are the shortcut keys for the Windows version of Photoshop 4.

Toolbox

The first thing to know about toolbox shortcuts is that they are single keys. If a particular tool has more than one option, such as the Elliptical and Rectangular Marquees, simply press the shortcut key again to cycle through the selections.

Also, when using the Painting tools, click Shift Lock to get a precision cursor instead of the general icon cursor. This will help you to do delicate work. To toggle the toolbox on and off, hit Tab.
Marquee tools Press M
Use Alt to drag subtractive marquees
Use Shift to drag additive marquees
Use Shift to drag multiple marquees (For more information, see Day 2, "Selections: Editing and Manipulating Images.")
Crop tool Press C
Move tool Press V (Also, when any other tool is selected, just press Ctrl to get a temporary version of the Move tool. Release and you will be returned to your original tool.)
Lasso tool Press L
Magic Wand Press W
Airbrush Press A
Paintbrush Press B
Eraser Press E (Press Alt to use the Magic Eraser tool, which erases to a saved version of the image.)
Pencil Press Y
Rubber Stamp Press S
Smudge tool Press U
Sharpen/Blur tools Press R
Sponge/Burn/Dodge Press O
Pen tool Press P
Text tool Press T
Line tool Press N
Gradient tool Press G
Paintbucket Press K
Eyedropper Press I (Also, when using the Painting tools, press Alt to temporarily select the Eyedropper tool.)
Hand Press H (You can get a temporary Hand tool when another tool is selected, by pressing and holding the Spacebar.)
Zoom Press Z (Try Ctrl + + to zoom in and Ctrl + - to zoom out.)
Toggling between foreground X
and background colors
Setting default colors D
Edit in Standard Mode Q
Edit in Quick Mask Mode Q
Standard Screen Mode, Full Toggle between F
Screen Mode with Menu bar, Full Screen Mode

Files

Remember, for you Windows users, you can use the Alt key to select menu commands. Notice, in all of the menus, all of the letters with underlines. These indicate that they can be selected via Alt. For example, to create a new file, Press Alt + F (for File menu) + I (for File info). It is as easy as that and can give your carpal tunnel syndrome a rest.
New file Ctrl + N
Open file Ctrl + O
Close file Ctrl + W
Save file Ctrl + S
Save As Ctrl + Shift + S
Save a Copy Ctrl + Alt + S
Page Setup Ctrl + Shift + P
Print Ctrl + P
Preferences Ctrl + K
Exit Ctrl + Q

Editing

Undo/Redo Ctrl + Z
Cut Ctrl + X
Copy Ctrl + C
Copy Merged Ctrl + Shift + C
Paste Ctrl + V
Paste Into Ctrl + Shift + V
Fill (background color) Ctrl + Backspace
Fill (background color, preserving transparency) Ctrl + Shift + Backspace
Fill (foreground color) Alt + Backspace
Fill (foreground color,preserving transparency) Alt + Shift + Backspace

Image

Levels Ctrl + L
Auto Levels Ctrl + Shift +L
Curves Ctrl + M
Color Balance Ctrl + B
Hue/Saturation Ctrl + U
Desaturation Ctrl + Shift + U
Invert Ctrl + I

Layers

Group with Previous Ctrl + G
Ungroup Ctrl + Shift + G
Free Transform Ctrl + T
Merge Layers Ctrl + E
Merge Visible Ctrl + Shift + E

Select

All Ctrl + A
None Ctrl + D
Inverse Ctrl + Shift + I
Feather Ctrl + Shift + D

Filters

Last Filter Ctrl + F
Fade Ctrl + Shift + F

View

CMYK Preview Ctrl + Y
Gamut Warning Ctrl + Shift + Y
Zoom In Ctrl + +
Zoom Out Ctrl + -
Fit On screen Ctrl + 0
Actual Pixels Ctrl + Alt + 0
Hide Edges Ctrl + H
Hide Path Ctrl + Shift + H
Show Rulers Ctrl + R
Hide Guides Ctrl + ;
Snap to Guides Ctrl + Shift + ;
Lock Guides Ctrl + Alt +;
Show Grid Ctrl + "
Snap to Grid Ctrl + Shift + "

Help

Help Contents F1

Macintosh Shortcut Keys

Here are the shortcut keys for the Macintosh version of Photoshop 4.

Toolbox

The first thing to know about toolbox shortcuts is that they are single keys. If a particular tool has more than one option, such as the Elliptical and Rectangular Marquees, simply press the shortcut key again to cycle through the selections.

Also, when using the Painting tools, turn on Caps Lock to get a precision cursor instead of the general icon cursor. This will help you to do delicate work.

To toggle the toolbox on and off, hit Tab.
Marquee tools Press M
Use Option to drag subtractive marquees
Use Shift to drag additive marquees
Use Shift to drag multiple marquees (For moreinformation, see Day 2.
Crop tool Press C
Move tool Press V (Also, when any other tool is selected, just press Command to get a temporary version of the Move tool. Release and you will be returned to your original tool.)
Lasso tool Press L
Magic Wand Press W
Airbrush Press A
Paintbrush Press B
Eraser Press E (Press Option to use the Magic Eraser tool, which erases to a saved version of the image.)
Pencil Press Y
Rubber Stamp Press S
Smudge tool Press U
Sharpen/Blur tools Press R
Sponge/Burn/Dodge Press O
Pen tool Press P
Text tool Press T
Line tool Press N
Gradient tool Press G
Paintbucket Press K
Eyedropper Press I (Also, when using the Painting tools, press Option to temporarily select the Eyedropper tool.)
Hand Press H (You can get a temporary Hand tool when another tool is selected, by pressing and holding the Spacebar.)
Zoom Press Z (Try Command + + to zoom in and Command + - to zoom out.)
Toggling between foreground X
and background colors
Setting default colors D
Edit in Standard Mode Q
Edit in Quick Mask Mode Q
Standard Screen Mode, Full Toggle between F
Screen Mode with Menu bar, Full Screen Mode

Files

New file Command + N
Open file Command + O
Close file Command + W
Save file Command + S
Save As Command + Shift + S
Save a Copy Command + Option + S
Page Setup Command + Shift + P
Print Command + P
Preferences Command + K
Quit Command + Q

Editing

Undo Command + Z
Cut Command + X
Copy Command + C
Copy Merged Command + Shift + C
Paste Command + V
Paste Into Command + Shift + V
Fill (background color) Command + Delete
Fill (background color, preserving transparency) Command + Shift + Delete
Fill (foreground color) Option + Delete
Fill (foreground color, preserving transparency) Option + Shift + Delete

Image

Levels Command + L
Auto Levels Command + Shift +L
Curves Command + M
Color Balance Command + B
Hue/Saturation Command + U
Desaturation Command + Shift + U
Invert Command + I

Layers

New Layer via Copy Command + J
New Layer via Cut Command + Shift + J
Group with Previous Command + g
Ungroup Command + Shift + G
Free Transform Command + T
Merge Layers Command + E
Merge Visible Command + Shift + E

Select

All Command + A
None Command + D
Inverse Command + Shift + I
Feather Command + Shift + D

Filters

Last Filter Command + F
Fade Command + Shift + F

View

CMYK Preview Command + Y
Gamut Warning Command + Shift + Y
Zoom In Command + +
Zoom Out Command + -
Fit Onscreen Command + 0
Actual Pixels Command + Option + 0
Hide Edges Command + H
Hide Path Command + Shift + H
Show Rulers Command + R
Hide Guides Command + ;
Snap to Guides Command + Shift + ;
Lock Guides Command + Option +;
Show Grid Command + "
Snap to Grid Command + Shift + "

Help

Help Contents F1


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