This tutorial focuses specifically on how to modify brushes in Photoshop. Learn how to change the size of a brush and control its hardness and opacity. Watch more at. This tutorial is a single movie from the Photoshop CC One-on-One: Intermediate course presented by lynda.com author Deke McClelland. With a duration of 9 hours and 51 minutes, the course helps you build on your basic Photoshop knowledge and achieve next-level effects in Photoshop CC. The Content-Aware Collection 12. Adjusting Levels 13.
In this Photoshop text effects tutorial, we're going to have some fun with strokes. We'll learn how easy it is to add as many strokes to our text as we want, rather than Go up to the File menu at the top of the screen and choose New, or simply press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N (Win) / Command+N (Mac).
Sharpening Details 14. Creating and Formatting Text 15. Drawing Shapes 16. Layer Effects 17. Paragraph, Character, and Layer Styles 18. Scale, Rotate, Skew, and Warp 19.
Liquifying an Image 20. Converting to Black and White 21.
Printing an Image 22. Saving for the Web Conclusion.
0 Comments This guest post was submitted by Brian Auer from. Working with Photoshop can be quite time consuming for both beginners and advanced users. Once you’ve worked with it for a while, you begin to find that you’re constantly going back and forth between the same menu items or palette buttons. If you’re anything like me, you’re switching tools so often that most of your time spent in Photoshop isn’t even on the photo — it’s messing with the vast array of editing tools. Fortunately there’s a way to help streamline your Photoshop workflow. Keyboard commands, or shortcuts, are simply a way to bypass a few mouse clicks when doing tool changes or tool property adjustments. They’re a little awkward and cumbersome at first, but once you pick up a couple of commands on the keyboard you’ll never go back.
The whole idea is that while one hand is running the mouse, the other hand might as well be doing something too. This method of working with Photoshop can really decrease your time spent on the computer and give you more time to get behind the camera. The following are 18 of my most commonly used shortcuts, broken out into three groups: simple, intermediate, and advanced. The simple commands are pretty easy to pull off, and they’re heavily used. The advanced commands take a little coordination, and I don’t use them quite as often.
The intermediate commands are somewhere between the two. Again, these are MY most used Photoshop shortcuts. I’m also only showing the commands for Photoshop CS3 (thought CS2 should be almost identical) on a PC (sorry Mac users). So if you want to learn more about this topic, read to the bottom of the article for additional resources. Simple Photoshop Shortcut Commands. H (Hand Tool) — When zoomed in to a portion of your photo, this command brings up the hand tool which allows for quick panning.
Also, if the hand tool is active and you hold down the Ctrl key, you can zoom in without changing to the zoom tool. Likewise, if you hold down the Alt key, you can zoom out without changing tools. Z (Zoom Tool) — This command just brings up the zoom tool, which allows you to zoom in. Like with the hand tool, if you hold down the Alt key, it temporarily switches to the zoom out mode. Ctrl + 0 (Fit on Screen) — This is a quick-and-dirty command to get the entire photo in front of your eyes. That’s Ctrl + zero, not the letter “O”. B (Brush Tool) — The brush is an extremely useful tool when working with masks, and I’m constantly using this command along with the hand and zoom tools.
Ctrl + Z (Undo) — Very useful for the little mistakes we all make. Tab (Hide/Show Palettes) — Hiding the palettes gives you a little more working room, thus decreasing your need to pan and zoom while editing. Intermediate Photoshop Shortcut Commands. (Decrease Brush Size) — Quickly decrease your brush size to get into those tighter spots. (Increase Brush Size) — Quickly increase your brush size for the larger areas. Shift + (Decrease Brush Softness) — Decrease the softness of the brush by 25%. Shift + (Increase Brush Softness) — Increase the softness of the brush by 25%.
1-0 (Tool Opacity) — I usually run my brush opacity around 5% or 10%, but some things require a bit more opacity. Just press one of the numbers from 1 to 0 and your tool opacity will change from 10% up to 100%. If you want finer control, press a second number quickly after the first, and you can get any percentage you want. So pressing 4 will get you 40% opacity, while pressing 4 then 3 will give you 43% opacity. Shift + 1-0 (Tool Flow) — This works exactly like the opacity changer, but you just have to hold the Shift key down while you hit the numbers.
Ctrl + Tab (Next Point on Curves Adjustment) — When using the curves adjustment dialog, you can place multiple points on the curve and adjust them accordingly. Sometimes you want to make very minor shifts in those points by nudging with the keyboard, but clicking on the point to activate it usually moves it to an undesired location. Use this command to switch focus from point to point without moving them around. Advanced Photoshop Shortcut Commands. Ctrl + Shift + N (New Layer) — This will bring up the new layer dialog box and place a new layer on top of the active layer. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N (New Layer No Dialog) — This command skips the dialog box and just places a new layer on top of the active layer.
Ctrl + Shift + C (Copy Merged) — This works basically like the copy command, except you get a merged copy of the composite image sent to the clipboard. This command only works if you’ve made a selection on the image first (use Ctrl+A to select all), otherwise you’ll get a copy of nothing. This is useful if you want to duplicate what you see on the screen into another image file or even another layer. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E (Stamp Visible) — This is actually one of my favorite commands. First, I’ll create a new empty layer on top of the stack. Then I’ll select that new layer and use this command. It does basically the same thing as the copy merged command, except it places the copy right into the new layer.
I use this for creating layer blends, sharpening, and any other type of editing that can’t be done non-destructively. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K (Show Keyboard Commands) — If you forget any of these commands, or if you want to check on other commands, use this to bring up the help dialog on keyboard shortcuts. These are only the Photoshop keyboard shortcuts that I commonly use during post-processing, but there are certainly a lot more of them that may be useful for you. Check out the Photoshop help topics for more information on this topic. In addition to that, I found a great resource at where you can download PDF documents of all the shortcuts for each version of Photoshop all the way back to PS5, plus he has documents for Bridge and Camera Raw. I find that his documents are much easier to use than the Photoshop documentation.
Vivek bandebuche November 27, 2009 02:47 pm Ctrl + Tab (Next Point on Curves Adjustment) — When using the curves adjustment dialog, you can place multiple points on the curve and adjust them accordingly. Sometimes you want to make very minor shifts in those points by nudging with the keyboard, but clicking on the point to activate it usually moves it to an undesired location. Use this command to switch focus from point to point without moving them around. Read more: this post is very cool.keep writting. Chris Grayson July 10, 2009 03:42 am Your most helpful tip is F to toggle screen mode.
I have CS4 at home and CS3 at the office. The clickable toggle is in two different places (CS3 = bottom of toolbox, CS4 = task bar up top). Using the shortcut key will help me from confusing/frustrating myself when I go back and forth from CS3 to CS4. My own methods: When I'm working in PhotoShop, my left hand is holding a Wacom pen, the keybopard is at a 45° angle, over to the right, and the thumb of my right hand rests near the Command Key. This also keeps it immediately adjacent to the other modifier keys: Option, Control and Shift. My 'rested' state is always in the Marquee tool. M - calls up the Marquee (selection) tool.
There are several reasons to work with the marquee tool selected, not just for making selections. When in the marquee tool, the Space Bar toggles to the 'Hand' tool, the Command Key toggles to the arrow 'Move' tool. Command+Option toggles to 'drag a duplicate layer.' Space Bar+Command toggles to the zoom-in tool Space Bar+Command+Option toggles to the zoom-out tool. You get to all of these tools from the Marquee tool, and when you release, it remains in the Marquee tool. The other big advantage to always pulling up the Marquee tool the second you finish your business at hand, is that you cannot screw anything up from the Marquee tool.
If you keep your toolbox set to most other tools, and accidentally click or simply bump your pen/mouse, you can end up with a blemish or accident. Another extremely useful shortcut is Command+Return which deselects out of any text block. Lu May 1, 2009 10:32 pm For Janice. I taught myself Photoshop with Adobe's Classroom in a Book. Photography is only a hobby for me. I primarily use it to create collages and for color correcting/cropping, etc.
I needed something that would teach me more than the basics, but didn't need to get into web development or the really advanced stuff. I have CS4 (I believe the CS stands for Creative Suite.but I only have Photoshop CS4, not the entire suite, so I'm not sure why they still call it that, other than the fact that it is part of the Creative Suite if you purchase all of it). I believe there is a Classroom in a Book for Photoshop Elements.
These books give you a CD of lessons consisting of several photographs in various stages of development. They include a photo that shows what the finished product looks like, as well as the photos needed to start a project and to add to that project.
When you open a photo, it may come complete with the layers needed to get to that point. The book itself has you go through various steps on the photos supplied in the lessons, so that you can learn different features. I thought I could skip some chapters, because they didn't apply to my needs, but it turns out that they might slip in some really useful advice/technique/shortcut while learning to do something you might not really use.
For example, in an early chapter, they may use the menu to save your work, in another they may use the shortcut to show you there are many ways to achieve the same result. I discovered these books because of my daughter.
When she attended collage, the course she was taking required her to learn Photoshop and Illustrator using these books. The instructor gave the assignments and did the critiquing, but didn't actually teach how to use the programs. She learned that by doing the lessons in the book, and then applying them to her own work. Once I get a working knowledge about a certain technique, but still need to refer to the book to remember 'how did they do that?'
, I find going to the tutorials that are available on the internet are fantastic. At that point, I may do a search for a particular tool, or technique. By the Way, when I picked up my copy of Photoshop CS4 I couldn't find it at first. They did a search at Barnes and Nobel and found they had 5 copies, somewhere. It turned out they were at the front desk.
People try to rip off the CD that is attached inside the book. This is so ridiculous, the CD just has the photos used for the lessons; without the book, it is worthless.
Janice September 19, 2008 01:48 pm Hi, i'm new to photoshop and am a bit overwhelmed with all the info without a proper introduction. Can somebody reccommend the best way to learn photoshop?
![Photoshop Photoshop](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125650591/758153272.jpg)
I have photoshop 7 and keep seeing CS3 after the name. I can't figure what that is? I also have elements.
Would you suggest a video tutorial vs a book? I'm diabled and single and do not work and am on a fixed income.
Please advise what you might choose in my situation? I am a fast learner. Thanks for your feedback, Janice. Eva-Maria December 7, 2007 07:01 pm Toby's 'ctrl + clicking the layer thumbnail gives you a selection of all non transparent pixels.' I usually hit Ctrl + a to select all and press Ctrl + - (arrow) to Nudge non-transparent pixels.
It also results with the mentioned selection, at least while 'Move' is current Tool. Ctrl+drag is useful to move layers while other tool is active. As I always have too many layers to scroll them on the sidebar, I do Merge this way: 'Move' is active, Autoselect Layers is checked at the toolbar, hold down the Ctrl and click the actual layers around the picture. Unmerge works the same way, holding down Ctrl and clicking the layer to unmerge. Ken November 2, 2007 03:28 am Great list, I've picked up some good ones (if I can remember them when I need them!)- thanks everyone.
One I don't think I've seen here is 'Ctrl H' to hide selection lines-good for previewing what things are going to look like before committing. Just don't forget to turn it off, as your selection is still 'selected'! This also cycles through showing grids if you've already gone there. You can even use this when transforming, although it makes navigation a bit more difficult. Oh, and holding down 'Shift' to constrain transformations to squares or circles.
Thanks again! GG September 27, 2007 05:49 am Nice list but I would like to mention that because PS is used by so many Windows AND Mac users, writing things such as 'Sorry Mac users' is just plain lazy and discourteous.
Any book you find on PS will show both sets of shortcuts or at least explain if there are any differences (alt vs. Option for example). As an experienced user in both environments, I don't have much of a problem translating any keyboard shortcuts between the two platforms, but people who are solely Mac users might. Normally when I see something like 'Sorry Mac users' I just click away. There are plenty of other sites with better coverage for both platforms.
K-OS August 27, 2007 01:00 am A company called zCover (zcover.com) makes awesome Photoshop Shortcut keyboard covers. For Mac's anyway (the only computer that matters.lol) I had no idea of half of these commands before I got this cover. Most of them are simple to remember as they are on the corresponding key of the first letter in the tool.
C for Crop Z for Zoom E for Eraser H for Hand tool B for Brush tool L for Lasso tool S for clone Stamp etc. I would recommend this cover to anyone that uses PS a LOT, it is well worth the $49 CAD. Michael July 28, 2007 04:52 pm I normally use ctrl+shift+alt+E to make a merged copy of all the layers I have selected. This command creates a new layer automatically, so there is no need to make a new one before applying the comand. To exit the text-editing mode I use ctrl+enter, a very useful shortcut for laptop users. On a side note, while editing text, keeping the ctrl key down will let you move the text while you're typing. You can do it afterwards, it's true, but I find it useful some times and wanted to share it.
Great post, it's going to be one of my favorites. May I translate it in Italian? July 27, 2007 12:09 pm Some of my favorites not mentioned are: It was mentioned that Ctrl + click on a layer thumb selects the layer transparency, but when you already have a selection made, holding ctrl + shift adds that layer transparency selection to the current selection, ctrl + alt subtracts it, while crtl + shift + alt intersects it. It changes your cursor to reflect this. This can be very useful when making complex selections from multiple layers.
Also, while using the marquee tool, you can hold down shift to constrain your selection to a perfect square (or circle when in elliptical mode), along with the alt for changing your start point to the center. You can even hold them both down and space at the same time. Also, once you've made a selection, you can nudge it around using the arrow keys, just like layers. When using the pen tool (which is the absolute best for making selections IMO - when you finally get the hang of it, it's indispensable), holding down alt while clicking a point you just made converts that point to a hard edge (deletes the trailing handle).
You can hold down ctrl to move points and handle points around, and add alt to that to break the handles. I highly recommend playing around with the pen tool. Once you've made a shape, you can make the shape a selection by holding ctrl and clicking on the layer thumb, just like any other layer. It makes nice and smooth anti-aliased selections.
![Command Function For Strokes On Mac Photoshop Command Function For Strokes On Mac Photoshop](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125650591/456366590.png)
alt + ctrl + d brings up the feather dialog when you have a selection. Holding the shift key while moving almost anything (moving a layer or selection, moving a vector point with the pen tool, etc.) turns on a snap feature, which allows you to move something in one direction only. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can remember right now. Toby July 25, 2007 08:59 pm First of all, great posts by everyone and a great article. Here are some additional shortcuts I use. Ctrl + Alt + E merges all selected layers onto their own new merged layer without getting rid of your existing layers. Andy, I'm not sure why you wanted to define ctrl + alt + shift + c as a crop tool shortcut since just pressing the letter 'c' is already the default shortcut for that tool.
Also, Jayhan, ctrl + clicking the layer thumbnail gives you a selection of all non transparent pixels in that layer, maybe that's what you meant by 'get to the layer transparency?' Like Sparky's ctrl + Q command for cropping to selection, some time ago, I too created a custom shortcut for that same action: ctrl + / is mine.
It's nice to see someone else who needed a shortcut for that feature. Another custom shortcut I created is for when you wish to straighten an image using the ruler tool. After you draw a line with the ruler tool, I press ctrl + alt + shift + A to bring up the 'rotate canvas (arbitrary)' dialogue box with the roation angle already calculated by photoshop.
This makes straightening an image a snap. I also often use: ctrl + s to 'save' ctrl + shift + s to 'save as' ctrl + shift + alt + s to 'save for web' My most frequent (by far) shortcuts are the tool shortcuts which have been mentioned already B,V,E,C,P,A.etc. Make sure that on your photoshop preferences (ctrl k to get to this dialogue box) you have 'use shift key for tool switch' DESELECTED to enable these shortcuts without having to also press the ctrl key. I also use my scroll wheel on my mouse to zoom rather than using the zoom tool.
You also must enable this feature in the PS preferences dialogue. Also holding down the spacebar while drawing a marquee selection allows you to move the marquee selection around the screen while you are still drawing it. Gellpak July 25, 2007 12:19 am To add to the selection shortcuts a couple posts up: When initially drawing a selection, you can use alt to center the selection on your start point. When normally if you started in the center and dragged to the right edge, the selection would stretch from the center to the edge, with alt it will expand in the other directions as well. Very nice for centering your selections on objects such as eyes and whatnot.
You can also move the selection while still drawing it by holding space (mentioned above). Travis Nelson July 24, 2007 11:59 pm Nice tips, I learned a few. I'm a keyboard shortcut lover for sure. One of my favorites is V to select the move tool, and then Ctrl+LeftClick to select a layer.
This is an alternate option to the 'automatically select layer' option for the move tool. This has to be done with the move tool though, even though most tools switch to it when holding Ctrl.
(well, not really my favorite per se, but about the only one I didn't see mentioned in the article or comments, unless I missed it. Mikko Tikkanen July 24, 2007 10:06 pm Uhm. Selection can also be moved just by making it and then grabbing it with the same selection tool.;) (But yeah, that'll come handy time to time when you have to make pixel perfect selections.
Andy Beeching July 24, 2007 07:34 pm Couple of extra bits I use a lot, I've defined ctl + alt + shift + c for the crop tool which speeds up slicing of comps for the web, ctrl + alt + shift + s is the Save for Web shortcut, and for quick zooming for a particular area (useful to go down to pixel level for precision cropping), then use space + ctrl and simply draw a selection on the canvas. The image will zoom in automagically. Final tips are learn the selection shortcuts, holding space whilst drawing a selection allows you to move it, shift constrains the shape (i.e. A perfect square or circle). It also allows you to add to an existing selection. Alt lets you remove parts of a selection.
Nice post, Andy. Johnny July 24, 2007 05:53 pm Great work Brian. I use Photoshop every day but I still found out a few new shortcuts. One of my favorite shortcuts is CTRL + T. This is used to scale and rotate a picture manually.
It is quite useful when trying to put together more pictures or rotating them and it is much easier then guessing how much a 35 degree rotation will move your picture.:-) I also use 'G' for the bucket/ gradient tool and 'L' for the Magnetic Lasso which is great for cutting stuff out from your pictures.:-). Jonic July 24, 2007 01:43 pm Great article:) I use Photoshop to create graphics for websites, so I spend a great deal of time in the program. Over the past few years I've taught myself to rely on quite a few keyboard shortcuts to help make my life (and my job) a whole lot easier. Here are some of the shortcuts that I use on a day-to-day basis (there's quite a few, so I apologise if the list is too long!) X - Switches colors in foreground/background D - Resets colors to Black (fore) and White (back) V - Pointer T - Text Ctrl + Shift + Alt - Save for web Ctrl + E - Merge Down G - Gradient M - Marquee Ctrl + ';' - Shows/hides extras (guides, slices, grid etc) Ctrl + Shift + ';' - Activates/Deactivates snap And possibly the most useful: Ctrl + plus/minus which zooms in and out over set defaults. Very useful, as others have noted:) It's also worth mentioning that if the appropriate setting is checked in the options (as it is by default), then holding Shift while hitting any of the single keys I listed above will cycle through the different modes for each tool.
For example, hitting Shift and G while in Gradient mode will switch to Fill mode, and vice versa. There are still dozens (if not a couple hundred) shortcuts that I still don't know, so I've got a long way to go before I've got full control. Thanks for teaching me a few I hadn't picked up on yet:). Won July 24, 2007 12:57 pm 'F'to toggle fullscreen (with gray background and visible menubar on a Mac, not sure what that includes on a Windows machine), 'F' again to toggle fullscreen with black background and no menubar and 'F' a third time to return to the original windowed mode. 'M' for the marquee tool (to make selections), Shift-M to toggle between rectangular and elliptical selections. Further, hold down Shift to constrain selections to a square or circle before/while/after dragging.
Press Command-D (presumably Control-D in Windows) to deselect. A.saliga July 24, 2007 06:59 am Keyboard shortcuts are the best.
I find it hard to remember what program or platform I'm on at times. As a student I'm learning Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, DVD Studio Pro, Director, and Avid.it gets confusing. But keyboard shortcuts are essential in my field for efficiency. To add to the Photoshop ones though. Control+spacebar - temporarily brings up the zoom tool (add the ALT modifier to zoom out Also, one that works for Windows only is double clicking the background within Photoshop (not an open image) to bring up the 'Open' dialog box. Some others that I use often are 'Control+D' to deselect, 'D' to set the foreground and background colors to their default, and 'X' to swap the foreground and background colors. GET DAILY free tips, news and reviews via our RSS Feed Sign up to the free DPS PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE Subscribe.
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