I found some tips at CGTalk.com, and it should help some beginners and more experienced members over here (as it did me). :)
Some of the tips may be repeated, as I basically compiled the replies of that particular thread, and some may only be compatible for one version of PS, and not the other, and vice versa.
Hope it helps some of you out, as it did for me!
*The first 44 was from a Chinese dude who admitted having some grammar problems; nothing major.)
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1. Press Tab will hide tool bar and palette, Shift+Tab will hide only palette.
2. Hold Shift + click the top blue bar for toolbar and pallette will move them to the nearest edge.
3. Double click the top blue bar for any pallette window will minimize it.
4. Double click the grey background will bring up open file option, Hold Shift+double click will open up the browser.
5. Sick of the default grey background around your image? select paint bucket, hold shift and click on the grey background will change to whatever color you have in your foreground color box.
6. In photoshop, all "Cancel" button in a window can be changed to "Reset" button by holding Alt.
7. Caps lock will switch you cursor for accuracy.
8. Press F button will switch between 3 different screen mode give you more working area.
9. To draw a straight line, click then move to the end point and hold shift + click.
10. Hold Ctrl will temporary make any tool into move tool until you release Ctrl.
11. Ctrl + Alt and click drag the image will make an duplication of the current image over lay on top.
12. Hold Space bar will make any tool into "Hand Tool" until you release Space bar.
13. While in Zoom Tool, Ctrl+space = zoom in, alt+space = zoom out.
14. Hold Ctrl and press "+" or "-" will change the % for image in navigator window.
15. When Using eyedropper tool to capture foreground color, hold Alt and click will instantly capture the color for background.
16. With Measure Tool, draw a line then hold Alt and draw another line from the end of the first line will measure the angle.
17. Ctrl+Alt+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z will go back and forth in the history.
18. Alt+Backspace and Ctrl+Backspace will fill in whole screen with foreground color or background color, Shift+backspace will bring up option windown, Alt+Shift+Backspace and Ctrl+Shift+Backspace will fill the image with foreground or background color but will leave the alpha transparent area alone.
19. When free transform with Ctrl+T, hold Alt to keep the origial image and transform an duplicated layer of it. Ctrl+Shift+T to repeat whatever you did in the last transform.
20. To make sure you Crop is on the edge of the image, hold Ctrl while croping.
21. Ctrl+J will duplicated the current layer.
22. Ctrl+Shift+E will merge all visible layers to one layer, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E will make copy of the original and merge all visible layers.
23. While using Marquee Tools, hold Alt will make the starting point as a center of the selection.
24. Ctrl + D to deselect, Ctrl+Shift+D to reselect what you deselected.
25. While selecting with Marquee tool, press space bar can allow you to move the selection.
26. Hold Shift and press "+" or "-" will switch between the layer mode:
alt + left or right arrows will change your tracking in encrements of 10
ctrl + alt + left or right arrows will change your tracking in encrements of 100
ctrl + alt + up or down arrows will change your leading in encrements of 10 pts
shift + ctrl with < or > will change your font size in encrements of 2 pts</span></span>
56. Ctrl + Alt + T make copy of the layer which you want to trasform. 57. Ctrl + Alt + right arrow. duplicate the layer you are in it. 58. Change the active layer : Alt + [ or ]. 59. Move the active layer up and down : Ctrl + [ or ]. 60. Link 2 layers: with move tool click in the first layer hold Shift and click in the second one.
61. Ctrl+[plus key] will let you zoom in on an image anytime while Ctrl+[minus key] zooms out. Ctrl+Alt+[plus key] will zoom in AND RESIZE the window to fit the image size... same for Ctrl+Alt+[minus key] as well.
62. When using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, Backspace will undo a lasso step each time you press.
63. Pressing X will switch the selected foreground and background colors.
64. Pressing D will reset the foreground and backgrounds colors to black and white.
65. If your image have multiple layers, create a Marquee selection and pressing Ctrl+Shift+C on any visible layer (it won't work if you selected a hidden layer) will copy the image into memory as if they were flattened! Paste it on a new document to see the result.
66. Ctrl+Alt+z will do multiple undos, versus just one.
67. Ctrl+click a layer thumbnail to select the layer transparency
68. To see what your layer mask looks like (and edit it), alt-click its thumbnail in the layers palette
69. Press and hold Ctrl+Alt and click the Help bar with your mouse, drag it down and highlight "About Photoshop" and let go of the left mouse button for a different About Photoshop splash/screen.
70. When using Polygon laso tool hold shift to make a perfect line, it goes every 30 degrees
71. CS2: Group many layers by clicking the layers you want to group by clicking it while holding the Shift key down, and then press ctrl+g to group them into a folder for means of better organization.
72. Ctrl+Shift+N creates a new layer with a dialog box; Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N gets you a new layer without the hassle..
73. Back to brush, [ and ] will increase/decrease your brush size, shift + [ or ] will soften or harden your brush edge.
74. Still in [ and ], Ctrl + [ or ] with move your currently selected layer up and down the hirarchy and Shift + [ or ] with select upper layer or lower layer.
75. Stamp Tool (s) is used to copy an area of image (defined by alt+clicking and area) and paint it somewhere else (cloning). It also works when you have multiple images open at the same time. Alt click an area of any opened file image and paint it anywhere else.
76. After you created a text you can click on font type tab and tap "down" key over and over to scroll through the font list and see the changes in (relatively) real time. A Feature that I am tired of waiting to happen in illustrator.
77. Still in text, a trick from microsoft word also apply: hilight the text you ARE typing and hit ctrl+shift+ < or > to resize you text to your need interactively. Pressing Ctrl key while you ARE typing also gives you a free transform box temporarily and will go if you release it. Resizing text also works by pressing ctrl+T (on selected layer, not when you are typing). It still retain as an editable text layer after.
78. And remember, pressing enter when you type will take you to a new line just like typing a letter but pressing ctrl+Enter OR Enter on numeric key will finish what you type.
79. You can drag a layer on to any other opened images in photoshop and it will copy it as a layer (better than copy and paste imho). Holding down shift while moving it will snap the image right on the center of the other opened image
80. If you are working with sets....
Click on the set, in the blending mode it shows pass through by default... if you have an adjustment layer within a set and you want that adjustment layer to effect those layers underneath it WITHIN the set only, set the blending mode of the set to "normal" instead.
Code:
Mentioned before with more explanation:
- Pressed F to switch to 3 different viewing mode... when I first try it I said "wtf? what it's for?" Well, if you are sick of painting your image on the corners just to find yourself resizing your current image window, with F you can pan way outside your image. Happy corner painting!!
- Create a new file, 500x500 px, create a new layer, get a standard brush and paint a dot on the top center of your image (like the number 12 position on a clock). press ctrl+alt+T, it will duplicate your original layer and free transform the new one, move the pivot point (the circle with little dot in it found when you are free transforming something) to the center of your image, rotate your image 30 degrees to the right and hit OK to confirm the transform
now.........
be exicted..........
Hit Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T 10 times and see what happen!! I have just found it last week. I used to think this can only be done in illustrator.
81. When using the "move tool" you can select any layer by holding down the CTL key(CMD on a mac) and clicking on the part of the layer on the canvas with your mouse. That way you won't have to go to the Layers pallete everytime and you don't have to keep checking ON or OFF the AUTO SELECT options for the move tool.
82. You can link up layers with out going into the LAYERS pallete, by selecting the layer how I just mentioned above and holding down CTL + SHIFT(CMD + SHIT on a mac) for each additional layer you want to link up. You can unlink them by clicking on the layer again.
83. You can delete more than one layer at a time.......by linking up all the layer you want to delete, and holding down CTL(CMD on a mac) while you click on the GARBAGE icon to delete the layer.
84. When using the type tool you can OK it by pressing CTL + ENTER(CMD + ENTER on a mac) instead of clicking on the check mark on the options.
85. If you have more than one type layer, and want to make any of the following changes color/font/size/alignment/antialising to all of the type layers at the same time.....all you have to do is link up the type layer, hold down the SHIFT key and in the options for the type tool make your change ie: color, size, etc.
86. You can use your number pad to change opacity for a layer....ie type 5 and the opcaity will be 50, type 55 and the opcaity will be 55. You can use the number pad for any tool that uses opacity...like the airbrush tool, stamp tool, brush, gradient, etc.
87. Pressing TAB key will hide the TOOLS pallete and any other pallete that you have on the stage. Pressing "F" will change between FULL SCREEN modes. Using these two tips you can view your work Full Screen without any palletes.(You can press CTL+ALT+0 to fit your work to the screen, or you can press CTL+0 to zoom to 100%)
88. Pressing the "+" and "-" keys while holding down CTL+ALT will resize the whole document window, not just the work area.
89. You can delete a layer by holding down the "ALT" key and pressing "L" twice......actually now with photoshop 7 you gotta press"L" three times. It's not actually a keyboard shortcut, but it's a quick way to do it....don't know if it works on a MAC.
90. Pan documents with the space bar.
91. CTRL+click a layer (in layers pallete) to select it's transparency.
92. CTRL+ALT+click between 2 layers in the pallete to group them.
93. ALT + click in 'add layer mask' button to add a black layer mask (instead of a white one).
94. When you select something, pressing CTRL+J will copy the selected area and add another layer with the copied area - opposing copying the layer, making a new layer, and pasting it.
95. To glue the palettes together (all palettes combined into one strip), you just drag & drop a palette onto the end of another palette (watch the rectagle that indicates where the palette will get attached to).
96. Hold down Alt while Burning to Dodge instead, and vice versa.
97. Ctrl-click a layer to select the objects in it; alternatively, you may select more than one object/s in more than 1 layer by holding Shift while using the method just mentioned (Ctrl-click). To deselect, just press Ctrl+D.
98. If you have a mini scroller on your mouse, you may use that to zoom in (scroll up) or zoom out (scroll down).
99. Need to locate a layer quick? Use the Move Tool (V) and right click on the area the object lays. There should now be a 'cursor-menu' with all the layers that is in that particular area. Now take a good guess and see which one of them fits the shoe; select a layer and Ctrl-Click the layer in the Layer Palette - see if the selection traces the object you desired to edit/find. Useful for those messy people (ie: me!).
100. Need to get rid of a background quick? Assuming you at least know how to crop around an object, do so. Now press Ctrl+I or Shift+Ctrl+I for Inverse Selection. Press Ctrl+X to cut that part out, and you should be left with the object!
101. Want to save the time from loading ALL your Photoshop brushes, when your Photoshop accidently forgets to load them up (happens to me sometimes)? Select the brush tool, and click the little arrow pointing right (located at the top toolbar), next to the Master Diameter tick. Go down to Preset Manager and now there should be a menu of all the brushes currently loaded. Click on the first brush (top left) and scroll down to the bottom. Now hold Shift and click the last brush (bottom right). This should highlight all the brushes. See the 'Save Set' to the right in the menu? Click that and name your brush set whatever you want, for this matter I just name it All (so I remember that this brush set contains all the brushes I currently have loaded, and is located near the top when loading the brushes up).
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Well, here's the list - 101 Tips and; I do realize some have been repeated, but this took more time to compile/edit than I thought it would :P, so I'll leave that up to you to specify which ones are repeated. Then I'll edit it to filter out the unnecessary parts. The last couple ones are mine B)
Got a tip, trick, or 'secret/easter egg'?
Tell us!
Expand, and help expand others' knowledge by posting your tips!
07-15-2005, 04:27 PM
robgasm
i knew... most of those... but thanks ^_^
(btw, what were you doign at CG? :rolleyes:) (i love it there)
07-15-2005, 04:31 PM
ROTD
yeah but they do come in handy thanks man
07-15-2005, 04:50 PM
Psypher
I was looking for some C4D tuts, but then I stumbled across what seems like a better alternative - 3DSM.
Then I saw the gallery, and it looked awesome @.@
Some things there look photo-realistic and beautiful XD
I want to learn CG later on in life, Maya and such, maybe a few courses in college if provided.
Then I saw the tutorials there that applies to things other than CG, and the tuts there were nice and helpful as well.
I really didn't expect to see such knowledge on other aspects of art other than CG, boy was I wrong!
07-15-2005, 05:03 PM
Tenchido
Wow...I'm going to bookmark this page...This is a great thing to have handy.
07-15-2005, 05:27 PM
robgasm
yeah CGtalk is an amazing place, one of my favs for inspiration, havent checked their tuts yet
i also would want to get into CG but i cant afford 3DSM (what i would use, not maya, tried that, didnt understand) atm :/
07-15-2005, 05:43 PM
2xsess
I think i know some of those and i'm sure i'll forget half of them and if i only remember half that i'll be better off with than i was to start with.............i think :)
Good work
07-17-2005, 10:38 AM
liz
lol, just a few there :|
07-19-2005, 05:29 AM
Ryzee
there's so many... but thanx for posting em, they'll help alot...
08-13-2005, 12:29 PM
DragonsRage
very awsome
09-03-2005, 02:49 PM
Supremacy
Thats a long list ....
09-24-2005, 07:56 AM
masterblaze
Sweet these help alto!
09-24-2005, 03:32 PM
shajn
24. Ctrl + D to deselect, Ctrl+Shift+D to reselect what you deselected.
Thanks, many of those will come in handy :)
09-24-2005, 09:40 PM
Father.Vinyard
usefull
09-25-2005, 11:57 AM
waledrashed
nice nice very nice
thnx Psypher
09-30-2005, 07:15 PM
Hitman
that was long thanks for filling us people in :)
12-01-2005, 11:01 PM
Sirinus
nice stuff! Bookmarked!
12-06-2005, 11:22 AM
gwaihir
very nice stuff this, thanks:D, I will use this things! thank you
12-07-2005, 05:26 PM
patslash
really really useful for newbies or not
01-06-2006, 11:22 AM
Ginta
Yeah, some of these were really helpfull... Some was just pure bulls ass :P
