120 Photoshop tips, tricks and fixes

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

Next page: Tips for working with Layers

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