5 Lesser Known Photoshop Shortcuts to Speed Up Your Editing

Keyboard shortcuts, or “Hotkeys,” are indispensable in Photoshop. So the folks at Phlearn dug into their collective knowledge to come up with their Top 5 keyboard shortcuts that will speed up your Photoshop editing.

These aren’t “hit F for full screen” shortcuts; each one is several keys long and they are genuinely useful. Check out the video above to see each of them demonstrated by Aaron Nace, or scroll down to read about them and try them for yourself.

Pay attention to the parentheses if you’re using Windows:

Spacebar + CMD (CTRL) + Click and Drag – Allows you to quickly zoom in and out of any part of your image.
CTRL + ALT + Click (RIGHT Click) and Drag – Drag left and right to change brush size, or up and down to change brush hardness
V, 1-9 – Hitting V selects the Move tool, and then hitting any number on your keyboard changes the opacity of the selected layer to that value. 1 = 10%, 2 = 20%, and so on.
OPTN (ALT) + CMD (CTRL) + SHIFT + M – This shortcut doesn’t already exist, but Aaron shows you how to create it, and set it as the shortcut for adding a layer mask.
OPTN (ALT) + CMD (CTRL) + SHIFT + S – Quick way to save an image “for web and devices.” That way it looks right when you share the photo online.

We definitely suggest you check out the full video, since Aaron shares a few small bonuses and it’s helpful to see these shortcuts in action. Plus, you won’t be able to use #4 without first creating it, which is what the video is for.

And if you want more Phlearn, check out some of their other tutorials PetaPixel has featured, or head over to the Phlearn website for even more.