Photoshop keyboard shortcuts.
Tool keys and editing shortcuts that keep your hands on the keyboard. Mac and Windows.
Learn the tool letters first
Photoshop's single-letter tool shortcuts are the foundation, and they're identical on Mac and Windows: B brush, V move, M marquee, L lasso, C crop, E eraser, T type. Because you switch tools constantly while editing, getting these into muscle memory is the single biggest speed-up available — it turns a stop-and-hunt workflow into a continuous one.
Brush and view control
While retouching, the bracket keys are a constant companion: [ and ] shrink and grow the brush, and Shift + [ / ] adjust its hardness — all without opening a panel. For navigation, ⌘/Ctrl + + and − zoom, ⌘/Ctrl + 0 fits the image to the window, and holding Space temporarily gives you the Hand tool to pan. These keep your eyes on the image instead of the menus.
Layers and undo
The everyday workhorses round it out: ⌘/Ctrl + J duplicates the current layer (the safe way to work non-destructively), ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + N makes a new layer, and ⌘/Ctrl + E merges down. For history, ⌘/Ctrl + Z undoes and ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + Z steps forward again. Press and hold to compare before and after. Since many keys match across Adobe apps, the Illustrator and Premiere Pro cheatsheets will feel familiar too.