We all use Photoshop on an almost daily basis but there is at least one tip in this post that will give you the old ‘Why didn’t I know of this before’ moment! It’s tips like these that make the most common of tasks quicker and easier than ever to help speed up your Photoshop workflow.
Display larger font previews
Go to Photoshop’s preferences and head down to the Type section. Change the Font Preview Size option to Extra Large to display legible preview on the font drop down menu.
Hold Spacebar to move a selection
Drag a selection with the Marquee tool, but before releasing the mouse button, press and hold the Spacebar to relocate the selection.
Change values with the cursor keys
Rather than typing in an exact figure, simply nudge the numeric value up and down sequentially with the cursor keys.
Quickly zoom back to 100%
Double click the Zoom icon’s magnifying glass to jump back to 100%.
Toggle visibility of multiply layers
Click the ‘eye’ icon next to a layer to toggle the visibility on or off, then drag the selection down the palette to repeat the command on multiple layers.
Hide or show all other layers
Press the ALT key while clicking the ‘eye’ icon next to a layer to toggle the visibility of all other layers.
Load the selection of a layer
Press CMD while clicking the layer thumbnail to load a selection of the layer contents.
Quickly toggle between blending modes
Windows users can simply toggle using the cursor keys, Mac users however can use the Shift key along with the plus and minus keys while the direct selection tool is active. Using this command while another tool is selected will change the blending mode option for that specific tool.
Toggle palette visibility
Increase the size of your work area by toggling off the palettes using the Tab key. Hover over the edges of the screen to bring back palettes, which will then disappear again when the mouse is moved away.
Fit to full screen
Another handy tip for Mac users. Cycle through various full screen modes by pressing the F key.
Switch to precision cursor mode
Press Caps Lock to turn on the precision cursor, useful for creating accurate selections. This also toggles off the brush outline, which can be handy for some occasions.
Increase and decrease brush size
With the Brush tool selected, press the [ and ] keys to increase or decrease the brush size.
Rotate a Photoshop brush
Head into the Brush setting, under Brush Tip Shape adjust the circular icon to rotate the angle of the brush.
Quickly adjust layer opacity
Select a preset opacity value by pressing the numeric keys from 1-10. Number one equals 10%, five equals 50% and so on.
Auto select layers or groups
Select and adjust the selection settings to automatically select a layer, or a group. Or turn the option off to avoid accidental layer selection.
Automatically load files into layers
Go to File > Scripts > Load files into stack to open up a bunch of images and automatically place them onto individual layers.
Easily create new guides
Click and drag a guide from the document rulers, or go to View > New Guide to drop a guide at a specific placement.
Change layer palette thumbnail sizes
Click the small options arrow in the corner of the Layers Palette, then change the Layers Panel Options to alter the thumbnail size.
Copy multiple layers
Draw a selection, then use the shortcut Shit+CMD+C to Copy Merged. This takes every layer into the clipping, rather than just the current layer selection.
Move items with super nudge
The cursor keys will nudge an object by 1px by default. Hold Shift while nudging to increase this to 10px. Especially handy when designing web layouts for consistent spacing.
#1 by kumaran1993 on October 19, 2009 - 11:02 PM
this is really nice tips for photoshop,thanks mate.
#2 by williamfjordan on October 19, 2009 - 11:12 PM
Excellent tips … thanks!
#3 by merrt on October 20, 2009 - 12:29 AM
Very good information. Thank you very much for sharing I learned a lot from this post.
#4 by anilkandolkar on October 20, 2009 - 11:19 AM
very useful tips of Adobe Photoshop.It really Works good. And it makes my photoshop work simple thanks man…keep it up..
#5 by shyam3500 on October 20, 2009 - 11:33 AM
Wow nice information on the photoshop part.i’m not good with photoshop and this really helped me a lot.Thanks and keep up the great job.
#6 by popon on October 20, 2009 - 11:38 AM
I having difficulties using photoshop recently; But thanks to your article now i am know much better
#7 by amrita on October 20, 2009 - 11:40 AM
excellent dude! how do u learn so much? can u suggest how to learn photoshop quickly? I need to learn it for my college assignments..
#8 by devilmanan98 on October 20, 2009 - 11:49 AM
awesome tips thanks a lot
#9 by adel09 on October 20, 2009 - 11:22 AM
Create a bold, dramatic text effect
Using the following tip you can create simple text effects, which can be deployed on websites and presentations.
Open a new file in Photoshop (file-> new). Create simple text by using the type tool. Right click on the “T” icon in the layer palette and select the render option. Select the transparency checkbox before applying the gradient. Now double click on the gradient tools option. Make sure that you change the background color to black and the foreground color to gray. Double click on the option palette, which would take you to the option palette. Set the type of gradient to liner and select the gradient to background. Apply the gradient from top to bottom of the text choice while holding down the Shift key. Using the Shift key with the Gradient tool restrict the gradient to an even upright blend. Now you need to duplicate the layer. Select the duplicate layer options and drag this duplicated layer vertically to 3 or 4 pixels using the arrow key on your keypad. Make sure that the transparency text box is selected on. You would get a dramatic text effect and further more you can use this same tip for clip arts as well!
#10 by revikri on October 20, 2009 - 1:06 PM
I just tried this trick and its working. Great job… actually i ofetn wondered how to do toggle visibility. Excellent tips… pls do post more.
#11 by rani.shiva9 on October 20, 2009 - 1:20 PM
Amazing this was.I never seen before it.Excellent information i got here.I am so happy with this information.I love to do editing some photos,so this article definitely fetching for me.Thanks 4 u.
#12 by truongdiemhien686 on October 20, 2009 - 2:26 PM
well, It is very useful for me. I am studying PTS
thank you
#13 by worldhero7610 on October 20, 2009 - 8:45 PM
excellent tips for us
thank you for that
#14 by xannebull on October 20, 2009 - 8:59 PM
i am a photoshop user and this tips added my knowledge more, thanks for this wonderful tips…
#15 by iam_tejas on October 21, 2009 - 1:01 AM
I am a beginner at photo shop and these tips are very useful for a novice like me. Especially, the tip about copying multiple layers i.e. “Draw a selection, then use the shortcut Shit+CMD+C to Copy Merged” was very useful.
#16 by cms123 on October 21, 2009 - 4:15 AM
This is very great article about Photoshop.Really all the necessary information to begin with Photoshop is provided in easy manner.It is very helpful for the begineers.All the tips are designed in the most convenient manner.Various tools like changing values,zoom etc are explained very clearly.thanks a lot for this beautiful aricle.
#17 by fartikans on October 21, 2009 - 5:49 AM
Is switching to precision cursor mode so easy? You saved my life (well save me a lot of time actually). How on earth I was totally not knowing this tip? I was spending lots of seconds to hit the right pixel. Thanks for this really valuable information.
#18 by jeyamraja3@gmail.com on October 21, 2009 - 8:23 AM
This article is very useful for my own photoshop creation.
This tips are amazing.
#19 by infolancer on October 21, 2009 - 10:35 AM
wow..
though these tools are visible on photoshop but my eyes could never ransack them.
20 very useful tips which would come in handy anytime, that too made so easily explainable by the screenshots.
“Copy Multiple Layer” was something i really needed
thnx
#20 by salinijasti on October 21, 2009 - 1:43 PM
Very helpful and nice tip to improve photohop knowledge. Thank buddy
#21 by Hesham_3del on October 21, 2009 - 4:15 PM
a very useful tips and awesome article
i had a great time reading it and helped me in my designs
#22 by arun19 on October 21, 2009 - 9:44 PM
Holding space bar to move the selection and 100% zoom back options was really a cool tip honestly i admit im really an amateur in photoshop.. im reading all the keyboard shortcuts and tips for the first time .. your post was good
#23 by iyang on October 21, 2009 - 9:58 PM
I’m just starting to do business online, and already have a web site using Photoshop Tips http://www.illsan.com really helped me in improving my website
#24 by raghu on October 22, 2009 - 12:30 AM
This is a very good article for the people those who are new to the photo shop like me..
Thanks to the people who posted it.And also very good short cut keys are produced which are so useful especially in Photo Shop.
Once again Thanks.
#25 by Prd001 on October 22, 2009 - 4:54 AM
Great tips!
Although I already knew some of the tips given, there are some that will be very handy indeed.
But some tips doesn’t work for me… Maybe it’s because I got an outdated version of PS.
#26 by teenaferns on October 22, 2009 - 5:12 AM
Hi there,
Thanks for wonderful tips,I use photoshop frequently but since I am not a professional I keep making mistakes.
I am sure now I can work better using your tips.
Thanks a Million.
#27 by XWAREZX on October 22, 2009 - 10:55 AM
Really good and expert tutorials on photo shop.It help everyone to develop more skills in photoshop.This tutorial made easy to handle photoshop.Thank you.
#28 by rszaballa on October 23, 2009 - 12:20 AM
This is an interesting and very informative post. As a new Photoshop user, this tips will really help me in tweaking the application’s features that I usually do when editing photos especially those of the 3 year-old daughter.
In general, your site is one of the best I’ve seen in terms of providing information pertaining to web development and design.
Kudos to the creator/s of this wonderful website!
Thank you!