a collection of photoshop tricks

7/22/2019 A Collection of Photoshop Tricks

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PHOTOSHOP

FAST–PACEDDIGITAL TELEPATHY

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HELLOAre you a designer on a deadline? If you are, chances are that you can

probably recall the last time you thought to yourself, “if only I had a little

more time, I could...” what? Polish that CTA button? Find a better hero

image? Re-evaluate that color palette?

The truth is, however, that as designers we will always be looking for

more time to polish the one pixel that got away . But rather than begging

our project managers for more time on our projects, it’s important that

we look at our own workflows to see if there are other ways for us to gain

just a little more time.

So without further ado, we thought we’d share with you our best

Photoshop tricks and shortcuts that we constantly use in the office to

help trim some of that excess time spent pushing pixels around.



TRICK INDEX

THE USUAL KEYBOARD SHORTCUT SUSPECTS

CUSTOM MUST HAVE SHORTCUTS

LET’S MAKE PHOTOSHOP MORE LIKE A WORD PROCESSOR

LAYERS, MASKS & STYLES

SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE

OPTIMIZING THE OPTION KEY

THINGS YOU SHOULD BE DOING MORE

5

8

10

13

18

20

23



USUAL

SUSPECTS

the



Tapping 1 through 0 will give you opacities

between 10% to 100%. Tapping multiple numbers

in quick succession, however, will give you that

specific opacity percentage (i.e., tapping 5 and 6

quickly will get you a 56% opacity level).

Normal (Shift + Option + N), Multiply (Shift + Option + M), Screen (Shift + Option + S), Overlay (Shift +

Option + O), Soft Light (Shift + Option + F), Saturation (Shift + Option + v), Color (Shift + Option + C),

and Luminosity (Shift + Option + Y).

Holding down shift and tapping 1 through 0 will

give you fill levels between 10% to 100%. The same

applies here where tapping multiple numbers

in quick succession of one another will give you

specific fill percentages.

If you like cycling through various blending modes for quick experimenting, this shortcut allows for you

to move up and down your current layer’s blending mode. Note that if you’re in any of the retouching/

painting tools, it will cycle through the blending properties of that retouching/painting tool.

Opacity shortcuts

Layer Blend Mode Shortcuts

Fill opacity shortcuts

Cycle through Blend Modes Shortcut

The Usual Keyboard Shortcut Suspects 5



Flipping Foreground& Background

Setting DefaultWhite Foreground &

Black Background

Adjusting Sizeand Hardness of

Brush Tools

Quickly accessing black or white will be necessary for many

occasions, including a quick layer masking, or brushing highlights

and shadows onto objects. This shortcut defaults your current

foreground to black and background to white.

Brush tool shortcuts for adjusting the size and hardness of

brush tools: Hit the bracket keys, [ or ], to change the size of

your brush. Hold down shift when using the bracket keys to

adjust the hardness of your brush in 25% intervals.




Hiding and showingrules and grids

Fast Editing with

Hue/Saturation

Shift + Anything forIncremental Nudging

Fast editing with Hue/Saturation (Option + Command + U),

Levels (Option + Command + L), and Curves (Option + Command

+ M): Quick pixel editing is sometimes a necessary thing to

do in a PSD. Even if you’re just trying to experiment or see

how certain pixels can be manipulated, try utilizing these fast

shortcuts to adjust hue, saturation, lightness, levels, and curves

on the fly!

While you may already know that Shift + any Arrow Key

incrementally nudges an object by 10 pixels, did you know

that holding down Shift + Arrow Key in certain windows in

Photoshop can also allow for 10% nudges? Try holding Shift + Up

or Down Arrow on any number input field in Photoshop (like the

font size input field or any number input field in a layer styles

panel).




CUSTOM

SHORTCUTS



Flip Horizontallyand Flip Vertically

Convert Point Tool

Edit > Crop

This is a powerful and useful tool when dealing with any sort

of paths/shape layers in Photoshop. It also shares similar

functionality to its sister tool in Illustrator so if you want to

maintain a little more consistency between the two programs,

consider binding this tool to C (which is currently the crop tool

but we’ll get to that in our next point).

Try custom binding Flip Horizontally to Shift + Command + H (for

horizontal!) and Shift + Command + J (since V is so commonly

used for pasting) for Flip Vertically.

Think about how useful it would be to simply make a selection

and crop with that selection instead. Utilizing the general crop

function can be a valuable asset to have. Consider assigning

a shortcut to this editing function such as Shift + Option +

Command + C.

Custom Must Have Shortcuts 9



PHOTOSHOP WORD PROCESSOR



All Caps Aside from using Underline (command+shift+U), this will be

your go to for making certain parts of your typography allcaps.

If you’re a typography machine, these shortcuts will turn

your bland paragraphs into beautiful print-quality works

of art!

Leading, Tracking,& Kerning

Faux Bold & Faux Italic If your font has a bold or italic weight, this shortcut will toggle

between the font family’s weight. Otherwise, it’ll simply add a

faux weight style to your font selection.

Make Photoshop More Like a Word Processor 11



Under the paragraph window, you can designate how much

spacing a paragraph has after the paragraph is completed. No

more double indenting to get the pseudo content separation

you’re looking for.

Trying to see which font would work best for that header copy?

Select the text layer you’d like to adjust, make sure the text

tool is active, and simply click on the font name’s input field.

Once this field is highlighted, you can simply hit the Up and

Down Arrow to cycle through your various fonts. You can also

hit certain letters to jump through to various parts of your font

library.

Instead of hitting that annoying little check box on the top

menu bar, if you use this shortcut, you’ll be able to exit out of

Type Tool editing mode. As a bonus, this shortcut also works for

committing Transform edits as well!

Command + Enter =Commit… Anything

Add Space After

(or Before) Paragraph

Fast Cycling

Through Fonts

Make Photoshop More Like a Word Processor 12



LAYERS,MASKS,

& STYLES



Merge One orMore Layers

Create a Non-

DestructiveFlattened Image

Group layers

An absolute favorite go-to. Rather than simply merging all of

your PSD’s layers with Shift + Command + E, you can create a

flattened image of your entire PSD on top of your existing layers.

Sure your fingers will be doing quite a curl, but it’s well worth it!

For a quick merging of one or more selected layers (and they

don’t have to be adjacent to one another), hit Command + E to

merge them up. All of the merged items will merge upward and

assume the layer name of the top-most selected layer.

Groups are a must for layer organization and any sort of

collaborative work with other people. Select multiple layers and

use this shortcut to group like items together. It reduces the

scrolling work you’ll have to do in your layers panel and might

aid in moving around, applying masks to, and correctly utilizing

multiple layers at one time.

Layers, Masks & Styles 14



Layer linking

Select Multiple Layersvia Selection

Easy Hiding& Showing ofMultiple Layers

If you’re trying to move multiple layers within a given selection

on your canvas, activate the Move tool and then hold down

Shift + Option + Command and drag your cursor (it will create a

rectangular selection marquee) over the area you wish to select

multiple layers of.

Just right click on the selected layers you’d like to link and

choose Link Layers. Linked layers don’t have to be next to each

other. Linked layers will always move together if one of the

linked layers is being moved. Similarly, linked layers will maintain

the move-centric lock attributes (Lock Position and Lock All) that

any of its other linked layers may have.

If you have a section of layers you wish to show or hide quickly,you can click and hold down on a visibility symbol (the eye), and

drag your mouse across the layers you wish to quickly toggle on

or off. With this trick, you can either drag straight up or down

the visibility symbols OR you can even weave around some

visibility symbols that you don’t want to toggle so long as you’re

still holding down and dragging!




See All CorrespondingLayers at Given Pixel

Selects All VisiblePixels On Any Layer,

Path, or Mask

Temporarily hide theeffects of the layeror vector mask

To select all visible pixels in any given layer, path, or mask

(layer or vector based), hold down Command and click on the

thumbnail in the layers panel to create your selection. For

example, selecting a vector mask will select all path shapes

within the mask, and selecting a layer with some brushed

elements will select all of the brushed pixels on that particular

layer. If you wish to make multiple selections, simply hold down

Shift and click on any additional thumbnails.

Although Shift + Option + Command + dragging to select is a

great way of selecting multiple layers at once via a selection; if

you right click on the canvas and you will be given a menu list

of all of the layers that have a visible pixel in that exact pixel

location.

Temporarily hide the effects of the layer or vector mask: To

temporarily disable a layer or vector mask, Shift + click on the

mask’s thumbnail to toggle the mask on and off.




Shift + dragging withdirect select tool

Keyboard Shortcutfor Moving

Between Layers

Keyboard Shortcut

for Moving Layers

If you’re working in the same layers, why not utilize a keyboard

shortcut to quickly maneuver to the layer you need to be on

rather than moving over to the Layers Panel and individually

clicking each layer?

This enables you to create selection boxes which allows for

easier selection of bezier points (rather than having to click on

them individually!). Remember you can hold down shift to click +

drag multiple points.

You can also quickly move a selected layer up or down the

layers panel. And if you need to simply move a layer to the topor bottom of your layers panel, hold down Shift + Command + [

(move to bottom) or ] (move to top).




BIGGER



Toggle Between Screen Modes Using F

View Actual Pixels Fit on Screen

Tap F once to toggle to Full Screen Mode with a Menu Bar. Tap F again to toggle to Full Screen

Mode (automatically turns your gray artboard area black). And Tap F one last time to bring you

back to your working Standard Screen Mode.

Quick & Easy

Zoom in and out using option

+ mouse wheel/scroll

Spacebar + Click to Pan

An easy way of panning up, down, left, or right.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the auto-easingeffect Photoshop has upon mouse click release!

View PSD in Two WindowsSimultaneously

Seeing two views of the same PSD simultaneouslycomes in very handy. For example, you could be

working on a homepage at 100% zoom on your

main screen but have a full-window and zoomed

out view of the entire homepage on another

screen. It helps let you see the forest through the

trees, especially when your head’s staring down at

individual pixels of a design.

Seeing the Bigger Picture 19



OPTIMIZING



Easy Clipping Masks

Copying Layer Stylesand Effects

If Hold down Option and drag the fx symbol with the effects

you want to copy over to the layer you wish to copy the layer

effects to. It will duplicate all of the layer styles of the first layer

over to the different layer. Additionally, if you only want to copy

one particular style (such as a Drop Shadow) from one layer to

another, simply click the actual name of the effect itself (in this

case Drop Shadow) and Option + drag that effect over to the

layer of your choice.

If you want to quickly clip two adjacent layers together, hold

down Option and hover your pointer between two layers. It will

clip the upper layer to the lower layer.

Optimizing the Option Key 21



Copy Layer Masks andVector Masks to other

layers and groups

Unlock a LockedBackground Property

Fast Eyedropper

Did you know that you can also Option + drag Layer Masks and

Vector Masks onto other layers and groups? Simply select the

actual thumbnail of the Layer or Vector Mask and Option + Drag

it over to the desired layer or group.

Option + double clicking on a background lock unlocks the

background property.

In addition to its normal useful shortcut (I), if you’re in any of the

retouching/painting tools (such as the brush tool) you can easily

switch your cursor’s tool function into a quick eyedropper by

simply holding Option.

Optimizing the Option Key 22



THINGS

DOING MORE



Save for Web & Devices

Close an IndividualPSD Window

Adding or subtractingfrom selections

As cramped as your hand might get from reaching to hit all of

the keys for this shortcut, the price is worth the time saved since

you’ll often be utilizing this when saving out your PSD.

If you’ve got multiple PSD windows open that you’re jumping

between and you need to quickly close one the PSDs, instead

of aiming for that ridiculously small close button, try using

Command + W to close that individual PSD instead. And if you

get that annoying little fail-safe window for when you’re closing

an unsaved PSD, why not save a click by hitting S (for Save), C

(for Cancel) or D (for Don’t Save)?

If you want to do more than one marquee selection at one time,

hold down Shift to add more selections or Option to subtract

from your existing selections.

Things You Should Be Doing More 24



HUD Color Picker viaMouse instead of Color

Picker via toolbar

Use Smart Objects

A nice new feature of CS5 has been the convenient

implementation of being able to access the color picker without

breaking a workflow (via the normal Color Picker window that

you have to click to open). Simply hold down Control + Option

+ Command and click while using a tool from the retouching/

painting section of the toolbar to activate the new Color Picker.

You can also customize the view of this Color Picker in the

General tab of the Photoshop Preferences Panel.

Smart objects are great in that they preserve the original state of

an object before being converted to a smart object. They’re also

useful in that you can create duplicates of a single smart object

(like a button), make a change within the original smart object’s

PSB file, and then have that change affect all of the duplicate

instances of the smart object. To create a smart object, simply

select the layer(s) you wish to combine into a single object, right

click in the layers panel, and select Convert to Smart Object.




Use Smart Filters

Save Layer Stylesand Patterns

If you love using filters, you will love using smart filters. Not only

are smart filters non-destructive, but the smart filter gallery

view allows you to see what a layer would look like with multiple

filters stacked together, and once you’re done saving the filters,

you can turn them off easily by accessing their visibility in the

layers panel. Lastly, one of the greatest things about smart filtersis that they come with Filter Masks which act just like Layer

Masks, so you can mask away parts of the filter if you so choose!

You’ve probably made that same button style over a dozen

times now, so why not simply save that layer style setting and

apply it whenever you need to? The “New Styles…” button is

placed right below the OK and Cancel buttons in the Layer Styles

panel but it’s often overlooked. Simply craft your layer styles,

hit the New Styles button and save your layer style into your

presets. If you want to apply that layer style again in the future,

simply go back to the layer styles panel, click Styles on the top

of the left navigation bar, click on the style you created, and hit

OK! You can also manage your styles as well as other presets

through the Preset Manager via Edit > Preset Manager…




Snapshots andLayer Comps

Snap to Pixels

Stop turning groups and layers on and off to see what your

design would look like with different changes and compositions.

Utilize Snapshots to take a temporarily saved history instances

of your PSD’s state; or, consider using layer comps to save

specific states of visibility, position, and layer styles that you can

go back to at any time in the PSD.

Last but one of the most important, whenever using paths or

shape layers, be sure to enable this option to ensure pixel-perfect

designs. And when you do decide to move around those shapes,

avoid Transform + moving these elements as different zoom

levels make them susceptible to being placed in between pixels

(rather than being locked in line with the next available pixel)!




THANKSWe hope you enjoyed reading “A Collection of Photoshop Tricks for a Fast-

Paced Work Environment”. The contents of this eBook can also be found

on our blog, where we strive to publish and promote betterment through

all things design and web centered. Everything you read in this book and

on our blog is based on our own knowledge and experience. We like toprovide practical insights that help our audience improve their design skills

and consider the world through a lens of design.

Digital-telepathy is comprised of a bunch of designers, developers,

strategists, and entrepreneurs who love creating products and designing

websites. We’re headquartered in sunny San Diego. Learn more about

what we do by visiting our website.

Also, be sure to watch your DT Labs Account for new products, more

awesome freebies and exclusive content!

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