10 Must-Know Photoshop Shortcuts to Save Time

“Without aesthetic, design is either the humdrum repetition of familiar clichés or a wild scramble for novelty. Without the aesthetic, the computer is but a mindless speed machine, producing effects without substance. Form without relevant content, or content without meaningful form.”

– Paul Rand

Is deadline creeping on your doorstep? You need to stop wasting time with repetitive tasks? Fear no more, we are here to save the day. Well, we are going to save the day but not from procrastination and Facebooking, that is on you. We are here to let you know some nifty tips and tricks that you can do in Photoshop. This is basically a cheat sheet for Photoshop CS3 and later versions.

It doesn’t matter if you just started working with Photoshop, or you are a connoisseur of Adobe, they will come in handy for each project that you will work on. So let’s stop wasting time, and boost our workflow tremendously with these 10 must-know Photoshop shortcuts.

1. Paste in place

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Stop going through the options menu, just use cmd+shift+V. This may seem obvious to those that have been working with Photoshop for a while now, but beginners wouldn’t possible know this easy to use shortcut. Designers are cramming their heads to achieve pixel perfection, and human error comes into play. Using paste in place, you will tremendously reduce human error and will finish your project faster.

2. Quick group multiple layers

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Using cmd+Gyou will quickly group multiple layers, without the hassle of going through a couple of menus. Ow, you don’t group multiple layers? Well, you should. It makes your job way more easier. Rather than going through hundreds of layers, getting yourself confused on what goes where, what style, or state that layer is in, just use this nifty shortcut, and all layers that you selected will be in that group.

3. Alt-click layer marquee

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This is a truly an efficient way to join different shaped elements across layers for a mask. You just need to hold ALT while you hover over the vector, or over the layer thumbnail, and it will change the cursor into a marquee for you to select an area that you desire. After you finished selecting, just click on it and the marquee will be automatically applied to the element that you selected. And if you want to select and join multiple marquees just hold Shift. There, no more hassle with masking, and it is done quickly too.

4. Create a layer blending shortcut

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You need to have a shortcut for your blending options – just go to keyboard shortcuts and define a key for it. Why is this a time saver? Well, you will definitely create a blending layer for each of your project, so why go through menus every single time? Why not just have it with a touch of a single button? While using this shortcut it will prompt the blending dialogue for you to select, or edit styles, rather than going through the layer dropdown and selecting from there.

5. Snap element to grid

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One of the worst kept secrets of creating web elements using Photoshop, is snapping elements to the grid. Are you seeking perfection? Who am I kidding, we are all seeking perfection while working on our projects. Start using snap element to grid, and the hassle of creating anchors to remove pixel bleed will be no more. It is a create trick that you can use while creating buttons, navigation vectors, or other elements. How can I do this, you may ask. Well, just go to the rectangle options and check the box that says “ Snap to Pixels” and voila.

6. Auto select with the move tool

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Auto selecting with the move tool should come as a default option when you first install Photoshop, but sadly, it isn’t. Just enable this “Auto Select”-  you will find it in the bar below File, and Edit, after pressing V, so you prompt the move tool. You will be able to select layers with just one single left click, and you can also drag a rectangular marquee and select all the layers that are within the marquee perimeter. Using this awesome technique with #2 – Quick group multiple layers – will help you greatly organize your PSDs.

7. Convert Point text to Paragraph text

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Having trouble with that point text? Do you need it to transform it into a paragraph text, but don’t want to use the old copy paste? Well, you don’t have to. Photoshop can convert point text to a paragraph text, and vice versa, just with a click of a button. You just need to select the desired text and use the option, it is that easy. It comes in handy when you are about to do some editing on editorial designs. Ow, and you can do this by selecting multiple text layers also.

8. Layer move

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This can be a little bit tricky for  newcomers, but if you pay attention and practice a little bit, it will become a repetitive task. The shortcuts that you need to use are cmd+ – so you can demote the layer, or promote it, cmd+shift+ – to promote the layer to top of layer stack, or to demote the layer to the bottom of the stack. It is great if you want to organize your layers on some sort of hierarchy.

9. Live editable text boundary

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Do you consider a hassle editing text within Photoshop? Just use these shortcuts and they will save your deadline. Just use the shape tool, by pressing U, the text tool by pressing T, the pen tool by pressing P, and the direct select tool by pressing A.

10. Screen Grab

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The screen grab shortcut is shift+cmd+4, pretty easy, right? Don’t underestimate its versatility, you can grab colors, buttons, styles from websites and media, without no hassle. Using this shortcut, you can capture a portion of the screen, that will display a crosshair which will readily display the height and width of the pixels of the area selected.

Don’t forget to leave us your thoughts in the comment section below, and any other Photoshop Shortcuts you think we should know about.