10 Really Useful PHOTOSHOP Keyboard SHORTCUTS You Don’t Know (Probably) – Photoshop Tutorial
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Your choices stick across every tutorial on this device.
Useful Photoshop keyboard shortcuts like these save time on selections, painting, and transforming layers without a single trip through the menus.
In this tutorial, you will learn ten handy Photoshop keyboard shortcuts that you probably don’t know.
The video was recorded in Photoshop 2018 (version 19.0), and every shortcut in this list still works the same way in the current version of Photoshop.
Key Takeaways
- Pressing Caps Lock (Windows) or Caps Lock (macOS) while a painting tool is active swaps the brush preview for a plain crosshair. It is the single most confusing shortcut interaction in this list.
- CtrlShiftD (Windows) or CommandShiftD (macOS) brings back the exact selection you just removed, even after you deselect and paint on a new layer.
- The forward slash key toggles Lock Transparent Pixels, so a brush or fill only affects pixels that already exist on that layer.
- Holding a tool’s own shortcut key temporarily activates it, and Photoshop returns to your previous tool the instant you let go.
- CtrlAltShiftT (Windows) or CommandOptionShiftT (macOS) repeats the last transform and duplicates the layer at the same time. That is how the circle pattern in this tutorial gets built.
- Esc (Windows) or Esc (macOS) cancels almost any open dialog box, tool, or in-progress crop without needing to click Cancel.
Table of contents
- What You Will Learn
- Requirements
- Useful Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts
- 1 – Restore The Last Active Selection
- 2 – Lock Transparent Pixels
- 3 – Cross-Hair Cursor on Painting Tools
- 4 – Birds Eye View (Fit To Screen)
- 5 – Toggle Canvas Color
- 6 – Feather Selection
- 7 – Spring Loaded Tools
- 8 – Repeat Last Transformation
- 9 – Cancel Any Dialog Box or Tool
- Bonus 1 – Turn Off Hyphenation in Photoshop
- Bonus 2 – Hide All Other Visible LayersAlt-Click | Option-click on the visibility icon
- Bonus 3 – RevertF12
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
- Related Links
What You Will Learn
- How to bring back your last selection without rebuilding it from scratch
- How to paint or fill without spilling color onto transparent pixels
- How to fix the missing brush-preview cursor caused by Caps Lock
- How to zoom out far enough to see every Free Transform handle
- How to duplicate a layer and rotate it in even steps around a center point
- How to turn off Photoshop’s automatic hyphenation in a type layer
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop 2018 (version 19.0 or later) or the current version
Useful Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Deselect | Ctrl D | Command D |
| Restore last selection (Reselect) | Ctrl Shift D | Command Shift D |
| Lock Transparent Pixels | / | / |
| Toggle brush preview and crosshair | Caps Lock | Caps Lock |
| Fit to screen / show all transform handles | Ctrl 0 | Command 0 |
| Zoom to 100% | Ctrl 1 | Command 1 |
| Toggle canvas color | Spacebar F | Spacebar F |
| Feather Selection | Shift F6 | Shift F6 |
| Free Transform | Ctrl T | Command T |
| Repeat last transformation and duplicate layer | Ctrl Alt Shift T | Command Option Shift T |
| Cancel dialog box or tool | Esc | Esc |
| Toggle hyphenation (Type) | Ctrl Alt Shift H | Command Option Shift H |
| Hide all other layers (isolate) | Alt Click | Option Click |
| Revert to last save | F12 | F12 |
| Show/Hide Extras (guides) | Ctrl H | Command H |
| Open Preferences | Ctrl K | Command K |
1 – Restore The Last Active Selection
You can remove a selection by pressing CtrlD (Windows) or CommandD (macOS).
But did you know you could restore the last active selection by pressing CtrlShiftD (Windows) or CommandShiftD (macOS)?
For a more advanced way to build a selection with a tricky edge, like hair or fur, see how to make channel-based selections in Photoshop.
2 – Lock Transparent Pixels
Press / (Windows) or / (macOS), the same key as the question mark key, to enable Lock Transparent Pixels. This allows you to only paint on opaque pixels and not transparent pixels.
3 – Cross-Hair Cursor on Painting Tools
If you lose the paintbrush preview and only see the crosshair, press the Caps Lock (Windows) or Caps Lock (macOS) key to bring back the preview.
The Caps Lock (Windows) or Caps Lock (macOS) toggles between the Brush Tool preview and the crosshair.
4 – Birds Eye View (Fit To Screen)
If you cannot see all the transformation handles when transforming a layer, press Ctrl0 (Windows) or Command0 (macOS) to zoom out to the bird’s eye view. Allowing you to see all eight transformation handles
Alternatively, by pressing Ctrl1 (Windows) or Command1 (macOS), Photoshop zooms to 100%.
5 – Toggle Canvas Color
You can press SpacebarF (Windows) or SpacebarF (macOS) to toggle the canvas color. To toggle back to the previous canvas color, simply press SpacebarF (Windows) or SpacebarF (macOS) until you see the original color.
6 – Feather Selection
When you have a selection active, press ShiftF6 (Windows) or ShiftF6 (macOS) to enter the Feather Selection dialog box. By feathering the selection, you will blur the edges.
7 – Spring Loaded Tools
To temporarily switch to any tool without deactivating the currently active tool, press-and-hold the keyboard shortcut for the tool you want to activate. When you release the key, Photoshop will return to the previous tool.
8 – Repeat Last Transformation
Photoshop allows you to repeat the last transformation you made.
Press CtrlT (Windows) or CommandT (macOS) to transform a layer. Then drag the center Reference Point (pivot point) of the small circle down to the center of the larger circle.
From Toolbar, set the Rotation Angle to 20° and press Enter (Windows) or Return (macOS).
Next, press CtrlAltShiftT (Windows) or CommandOptionShiftT (macOS) repeatedly, and Photoshop will repeat the last transformation and duplicate the layer.
In other words, Photoshop will rotate a copy of the circle 20 degrees from the center of the larger circle.
9 – Cancel Any Dialog Box or Tool
If you want to cancel out of any dialog box, workspace, or tool, press the Esc (Windows) or Esc (macOS) key.
Bonus 1 – Turn Off Hyphenation in Photoshop
When placing a body of text in Photoshop, some of the words will have hyphens at the end of each line. To easily remove the hyphens, press CtrlAltShiftH (Windows) or CommandOptionShiftH (macOS).
This is one of several Photoshop Type keyboard shortcuts that speed up working with text.
Alternatively, to remove hyphens, you can also go to the Paragraph panel, right-click and select Hyphenation. The Hyphenation dialogue box appears, and you can uncheck the Hyphenation checkbox.
Bonus 2 – Hide All Other Visible Layers
Alt-Click | Option-click on the visibility icon
To quickly hide layers except for the selected layer, press Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and click on the eye icon.
To re-activate the other layers, simply select the active layer and repeat the previous keyboard shortcut.
Bonus 3 – Revert
F12
If you made a mistake in the document you’re working on, press the F12 (Windows) or F12 (macOS) key to bring it back to the last save point.
For an even more detailed safety net than one-step Revert, turn on Photoshop’s History Log to keep a full written record of every edit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Press CtrlShiftD (Windows) or CommandShiftD (macOS) to restore the last active selection. Photoshop brings it back even after you deselect and paint on a new layer, so you never have to rebuild a complex selection from scratch.
Your Caps Lock (Windows) or Caps Lock (macOS) key is turned on. Photoshop uses Caps Lock to toggle between the full Brush Tool preview and a plain crosshair cursor. Turn Caps Lock off to bring the brush preview back.
It toggles Lock Transparent Pixels for the active layer. With it on, a brush, fill, or clone tool only affects pixels that already exist on that layer, so transparent areas stay transparent.
Press Ctrl0 (Windows) or Command0 (macOS) to zoom out to a view that shows every Free Transform handle. Ctrl1 (Windows) or Command1 (macOS) zooms back to 100%.
Press CtrlAltShiftT (Windows) or CommandOptionShiftT (macOS). Photoshop repeats your last transformation and duplicates the layer every time you press it. That is how you can rotate copies of an object in even steps around a center point.
Select the text and press CtrlAltShiftH (Windows) or CommandOptionShiftH (macOS). You can also open the Paragraph panel’s flyout menu and uncheck Hyphenation.
Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and click the visibility eye icon of the layer you want to isolate. Click the same icon again with Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) held to bring every other layer back.
F12 (Windows) or F12 (macOS) reverts the document to the last saved version. It is a fast way to undo a string of mistakes without pressing undo repeatedly.
Conclusion
These ten shortcuts, plus the three bonus picks, take only a few minutes to learn and save real time once they become muscle memory.
None of them need a plugin or a specific Photoshop update. They work in Photoshop 2018 and in the current version, so you can start using them on your very next file.
Want dozens more? The related tutorials below cover a full range of additional Photoshop shortcuts.
Watch the full video above for a live demonstration of each shortcut, and comment on the video if you have a favorite one it did not cover.
Selections and Masking Mastery
Complete course includes 2.5 hours of step-by-step lessons, 6 structured modules, downloadable practice files, and custom Photoshop brushes. Everything you need to master selections and masks in one place.
Keep going
Next, check out the full 2026 Photoshop keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet for shortcuts covering every tool and panel.
