Tutorial: useful Photoshop shortcuts

HDR photo taken at the beginning of sunset on Fuerteventura island.

More a tip than a tutorial today. I believe that using keyboard shortcuts are one of the best ways to improve efficiency when working with any computer application. I use them in every software, whether it is a programming IDE or an imaging application. Today I would like to share with you a set of my favourite and most often used Photoshop CS shortcuts.

Layers and image:

• CTRL + N - create new image
• CTRL + SHIFT + N - create new layer
• CTRL + I - colour inversion - it is especially useful when working with layer masks as black becomes white and white becomes black
• CTRL + J - duplicate selected layer
• \ - [when modifying layer mask] - red overlay is displayed over the image representing the layer mask. It makes masking much much easier
• ALT + left mouse click on layer mask - displays only layer mask
• ALT + left mouse click on the layer visibility icon (small eye) - all other layers are hidden but the clicked one
• SHIFT + left mouse click on layer mask - disables layer mask (useful to compare before and after applying the layer mask)
• SHIFT + CTRL + E - merge visible layers (removes all layers)
• SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + E - merge visible layers and create new layer with the result in it (doesn't remove any layers)

Selections:

• CTRL + A - select whole image
• CTRL + D - select none (deselect)
• SHIFT + CTRL + I - select inverse 

History:

• CTRL + Z - undo/redo last action
• CTRL + ALT + Z - undo action from the history (one by one)
• CTRL + SHIFT + Z - redo action from the history (one by one)
• CTRL + F - repeat last filter (with the same settings as last time)

Tools:

• B - select a brush tool
• C -  select a crop tool
• D - [when using a brush] restores default background and foreground colours (black & white)
• X - [when using a brush] when using a brush it toggles background with foreground colour
• ] - [when using a brush] increases size of a brush
• [ - [when using a brush] decreases size of a brush
• SHIFT + ] - [when using a brush] increases hardness of brush
• SHIFT + { - [when using a brush] decreases hardness of brush

Other:

• CTRL + SHIFT + ; - toggle snapping on and off
• F8 - toggle Info panel visibility 
• CTRL + W - close selected file
• CTRL + ALT + W - close all opened files. Very useful if you have a lot of files opened and you need to close them all.