Beginners photoshop help. (pc windows)

Ten simple but useful keyboard commands in photoshop.

1) The spacebar.
Hold down the spacebar when you want to navigate around your photo. It brings in the hand tool and is nice and quick. Letting go will put you back on the last tool you were using.


2) X key.
Useful when using quick mask mode because it switches your foreground and background colours.


3) The [ ] keys.
These little babies change your brush size quicker than you can say 'brush!'. [ makes it smaller and ]
makes it bigger.

4) Ctrl + and Ctrl -
These combis zoom in and out of your pic instead of having to select the magnify tool from the menu.

5) Ctrl spacebar and Alt spacebar
These do the same as number 4, for those of you who favour the spacebar. ( of course those of you with mouse scroll whell can use that instead)

6) Caps lock
Use this when using most of the tools and it will turn the cursor into a cross hair for more precise use.

7) V key
This brings up your move tool and is handy when working with selection layers amongst other things.

8) File >automate > contact sheet
Not exactly a shortcut but a useful tool. If you are doing a batch of pics for someone and want to print a sheet of mini proofs (contact sheet) then this is for you. Just save all the pics into one folder and select this folder in the menu. Voila! a page full of mini pics for your friends/clients to choose from.

9) Shift key
If you hold this down when using various tools (i.e brush tool) it will interpolate the space between any two points and fill them in with a straight line of the diameter of the tool you are using. Just click on your starting point, hold down the shift key and click again somewhere else in the photo and the line will be created. Useful when using the EXTRACT tool or when making manual selection, if used properly.

10) Ctrl S
Activates the 'save' option and saves your masterpiece over the existing file. Shift Ctrl S Will allow you to save as a new file in a location of your choice.


There are a lot of shortcuts in photoshop. This is only a simple 10 that may help newcomers to this amazing piece of software. I could type a whole load more but it can get confusing. Learn a few at a time until it becomes instinctive before trying to learn more.

Happy photoshopping!

Tco