Adobe Photoshop Shortcuts You Should Know – Free Photoshop Course Part 1
Why This Matters
Few things can sap your creative momentum quite like clunky software navigation. If you’ve ever sat down with high hopes of making Photoshop bend to your will, only to find yourself tripping over endless menus and toolbars, you’re not alone. Nearly every new user wrestles with the same old beast: too many clicks, not enough actual editing.
For those dipping their toes into the Photoshop pool (or being chucked straight into the deep end by a client deadline), slow workflows eat up hours better spent on creativity. Time equates to focus. The more time you spend hunting for the right tool or navigating drop-down menus, the less energy you have for the work that matters. Every pro I know has a mental library of shortcuts that preserve sanity and save time.
This article is the first stop in our completely free Pixelhaze Academy Photoshop for Beginners course. If Adobe’s intimidating sea of icons has you stumped, you’re in the right place. I’ll walk you through the essential keyboard shortcuts and setup tricks I use in my own projects. I focus only on the practical fixes to get you working faster and smarter from the start.
“It can be tempting to focus on fancy effects in Photoshop, but the professionals you admire are probably just people who’ve learned a few clever hacks and use them every day. Get comfortable with these building blocks now and the complex stuff becomes much less mysterious.”
— Elwyn Davies, Pixelhaze Academy
Common Pitfalls
Having coached countless beginners (and watched a few pros muddle through, too), I see the same traps cropping up time and again:
1. Click Fatigue: Relying on the mouse for everything, users spend far too long searching for tools, options, and commands hidden deep in menus.
2. Shortcut Overwhelm: Some try to memorise every shortcut at once, then promptly forget the lot. The trick is starting small.
3. Workspace Chaos: Beginners stick with the default layout, which is fine for a photoshoot in 2012, but not much use for focused editing today. Too many panels, too much clutter.
4. Layer Mayhem: Juggling dozens of layers without naming, grouping, or using the right shortcuts leads to an unwieldy pile that no one wants to sort.
5. Fear of Customisation: Many never touch the workspace settings, shortcut editor, or panel arrangement. Don’t be shy. Photoshop is built to be moulded around your preferences.
Sticky shortcuts and smarter workspaces help with everything you’ll do later on. If you skip them, you’ll waste hours every week for years.
Step-by-Step Fix
Below you’ll find the simple, actionable steps I wish I’d known at the start. Don’t try to learn the entire shortcut library at once. Instead, integrate each of these into your actual projects, and let muscle memory do the rest.
Step 1: Master the Essential Move and Select Shortcuts
If there’s one family of shortcuts every beginner should learn, it’s navigation and selection. These are your bread and butter for almost any edit.
- V — Activates the Move tool. This is how you select and reposition text, images, shapes, or entire layers.
- M — Rectangular Marquee tool. Perfect for selecting basic blocks of an image.
- Ctrl + A (Cmd + A on Mac) — Selects the whole canvas.
- Ctrl + D (Cmd + D) — Deselects an active selection.
How to Use These:
Open an image, press V, and click/drag anything you’d like to move. If you want to select a chunk, hit M and drag a rectangle around your area of interest. Use Ctrl + D the moment something stays selected for longer than you need.
For quick toggling between the Move tool (V) and Marquee tool (M), just use your non-dominant hand to move between the two as you work. It saves a sea of unnecessary mouse movement. If you like really precise positioning, nudge with the arrow keys after selecting.
Step 2: Use Brush, Eraser, and Zoom Efficiently
Cleaning up photos, retouching details, or sketching ideas is where most find their rhythm or lose it. The following shortcuts keep you hands-on and out of the menus.
- B — Brush tool.
- E — Eraser tool.
- Z — Zoom tool.
- [ and ] — Changes brush size (smaller and larger, respectively).
How to Use These:
Tap B to start brushing; tap E to switch over to erasing. Hit Z and click-drag to zoom in/out. If your brush or eraser is too big or small, tweak it instantly using [ and ].
Hold Spacebar at any time to temporarily switch to the Hand tool for panning around the canvas. You don’t need to interrupt your flow with the zoom controls. It feels odd at first but soon becomes indispensable.
Step 3: Take Control of Your Layers (Without Layer Madness)
Layers are Photoshop’s secret weapon, but they can quickly descend into chaos. These shortcuts keep things simple and fast:
- Ctrl + Shift + N (Cmd + Shift + N on Mac) — Create a new layer.
- Ctrl + J (Cmd + J) — Duplicate the current layer or selection.
- Ctrl + G (Cmd + G) — Group selected layers.
How to Use These:
After making a significant change, hit Ctrl + Shift + N to keep your edits non-destructive. When you want to experiment with something, duplicate the layer first using Ctrl + J. If things start piling up, select related layers and group them with Ctrl + G so you can toggle visibility or reposition as a set.
Double-click a layer’s name in the Layers panel to rename it something useful. Saving yourself from “Layer 33 copy 4” syndrome is a gift to your future self.
Step 4: Speed Up Transformations and Edits
Transforming, scaling, rotating, and inverting are edits you do dozens of times a session. Master the shortcuts now and your wrist will thank you later.
- Ctrl + T (Cmd + T on Mac) — Free Transform (move, resize, rotate).
- Shift + Drag — Constrain proportions when scaling.
- Ctrl + I (Cmd + I) — Invert colours on the current layer/selection.
- Ctrl + Z (Cmd + Z) — Undo. (Tap repeatedly in Photoshop CC for multi-step Undo.)
How to Use These:
Select any layer or selection, then hit Ctrl + T to manipulate it. Use Shift while dragging to maintain proportions. If you need to reverse a mistake, keep Ctrl + Z handy.
If you are in Free Transform and things aren't working, press Esc to cancel without committing any changes. This provides a simple way to step back.
Step 5: Customise Your Workspace for Productivity
You do not have to work in Photoshop’s cluttered default workspace. Changing things up is crucial for efficiency, especially on smaller screens.
Personal Workspace Settings:
- Go to Window > Workspace > New Workspace…
- Arrange panels (Layers, History, Properties, etc.) where you want them
- Save your custom setup for instant recall
You can also hide panels you rarely use by unticking them under the Window menu.
Assign keyboard shortcuts for your most-used panels (for example, F7 for Layers) via Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. With this setup, you'll move through your layout quickly and efficiently.
Step 6: Use Clipping Masks, Layer Masks, and Selections for Precision
Understanding masks and advanced selection is an important step that gives editors more confidence.
- Alt + Click (Option + Click on Mac) between layers — Create a clipping mask
- Ctrl + Click on a layer thumbnail — Select layer contents
- Ctrl + Alt + G (Cmd + Option + G on Mac) — Clipping mask shortcut
How to Use These:
To have a layer affect only the area directly underneath it, hold Alt and click between your layers in the Layers panel. For a precise selection, hold Ctrl and click that layer’s thumbnail.
Add a layer mask (the little rectangle-with-a-circle icon at the bottom of the Layers panel) instead of erasing. This makes last-minute client tweaks much easier.
What Most People Miss
You can know the shortcuts and still work slowly if you’re constantly stopping to remember what everything does. The solution is to force yourself, for one project, to use only shortcuts for your most common actions, even if you need a sticky note reminder.
Another sneaky trick: sit alongside a seasoned Photoshop user for half an hour, even if just via a screenshare. You’ll notice the little things, like how they flick between tools without hesitation or how rarely they open the menu bar. Watch and copy, and you will adapt faster.
Focus on mastering a handful of shortcuts you actually use every day, instead of trying to memorise everything at once. Over time, your muscle memory will develop, and the rest will gradually fall into place.
The Bigger Picture
Start with these shortcuts and productivity tweaks and you begin to speed up Photoshop sessions while gaining more control. This leads to better creative results (and far less frustration). Colleagues and clients observe faster, high-quality work with less fuss.
Over the long run, workflow mastery brings:
- Less time wasted, especially when facing deadlines or bulk edits
- The freedom to experiment because the basics don’t drain your energy
- The confidence to move forward with advanced lessons later on
Eventually, the challenges that took you hours will become quick, manageable tasks. This is a professional-level advantage.
Jargon Buster
Adobe Creative Cloud: Adobe’s subscription service providing Photoshop and other design tools.
Layer: Think of a single clear sheet stacked in your project. You can edit one sheet without touching the others.
Keyboard Shortcut: A key combo that performs an action much quicker than the menu.
Workspace: The arrangement of tool panels and windows within Photoshop.
Clipping Mask: A technique where one layer only shows through the non-transparent bits of the layer below.
Layer Mask: A way to hide or reveal parts of a layer without deleting anything.
Quick FAQ
Q: What’s the single most useful Photoshop shortcut to learn first?
A: The Move tool (V) or Undo (Ctrl + Z). If you keep your hands near these, you’ll recover from mistakes with ease and keep things moving.
Q: How do I stop forgetting shortcuts?
A: Don’t try to learn everything in a week. Pick 3–5 new shortcuts per project. Repeat them every time you need that action until they become habit.
Q: My workspace is a mess. Can I reset it?
A: Yes. Go to Window > Workspace > Reset [Workspace Name] to start fresh. Custom layouts can be saved once you find a setup that works for you.
Q: Where can I learn more?
A: Pixelhaze Academy has a growing set of bite-sized lessons for everyday creatives.
Related Posts and Resources
- 5 Useful Adobe Photoshop Shortcuts for Designers That Can Save You Time
- The Essential Guide to Layers in Photoshop (Pixelhaze Academy)
- Free Photo Editing for Beginners Course
Wrap-Up
If you remember one lesson from this chapter: stop letting Photoshop’s complexity slow you down. Build up your shortcut arsenal one job at a time, and customise your workspace until it feels like home. You don’t need to go at it alone. Pixelhaze Academy provides practical tips and useful cheats. Next, learn how to master selections and masking, so you can handle late-night client logo emergencies with confidence.
“Want more helpful systems like this? Join Pixelhaze Academy for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership.”