If you use keyboard shortcuts in Adobe Photoshop, you have probably run across numerous tables and lists attempting to organize the hundreds of keyboard shortcuts into something manageable. Adobe, for example, offers a handy printable pdf of the most common shortcuts. Despite being very thorough lists, they often come up short in usefulness. After all, you are probably not going to learn or memorize shortcuts by looking at a long list of shortcuts. Read on for something different.
If you haven’t already come across it, check out the browser based Adobe Photoshop Keyboard Visualizer.
Once there, select your app and version (e.g. Photoshop CC). Then pick your operating system and language.
You can now read what each key does on a screen image of a keyboard. If you have a hard time reading the relatively tiny text, try mousing over the keyboard image to highlight functions in larger text below the keyboard.
Where this app really shines is in its interactivity with your own keyboard. Hold down your SHIFT key and the on-screen keyboard will light up the available shortcuts in green. Play around with different modifiers and combinations. CTRL/COM+SHIFT will show you the shortcuts available in orange, CTRL/COM shows available shortcuts in magenta, etc.
The visualizer also allows you to search for specific shortcuts. A list of possible combinations will automatically appear as you type, making it very fast to use.
Please note that this tool does not seem to have been updated to include changes to the shortcut lineup that have appeared in Photoshop CC 2015. For example, Save For Web (ALT/OPT+SHIFT+CTRL/COM+S) is being phased out in favor of the new Export As (ALT/OPT+SHIFT+CTRL/COM+W). Neither of these changes are reflected when using the Adobe Photoshop Keyboard Visualizer. This shouldn’t deter you from playing around with this tool, since the majority of shortcuts are unchanged with the introduction of CC 2015.
Do you know of a great keyboard shortcut tool or reference? Let us know in the comments below!
I love this great tip.
Should be very useful. Thank you for the tip.
Hey folks, this is really COOL! Did not know this diagram of the keyboard existed. I AM ON IT!!!