Mark Murphy quizzes fellow designers to come up with a brilliant list of Photoshop productivity shortcuts.
Deadline looming? Clients and bosses breathing down
your neck? Are you wondering just where all that time went and how in
the name of the holy CS you're going to get this project out the door by
5:30pm? Of course there's no excusing your habitual procrastination and
frankly cavalier attitude to Facebook breaks, but we all know that when
you're racing toward zero hour, every second counts. It's times like
this when every element of your work needs to flow together efficiently,
minimising 'hover' time between tasks while still allowing you to keep
the bigger picture in mind.
It was with this in mind that creating a basic but invaluable cheat-sheet for Photoshop CS6 made so much sense. After quizzing designers across the Precedent
digital design agency and mixing in some of my own favourites, I
gathered a comprehensive list of our collective top tips for using any
Photoshop from CS3 onwards.
Whether you're a Photoshop Padawan or an Adobe aficionado,
there's sure to be at least one tip in here that will ratchet up your
workflow and save you time and hassle.
01. Paste in place
An obvious but no less valuable place to start, paste in
place isn't a default setting when copying elements across multiple
Photoshop documents. Some designers have been witnessed pushing pixels
trying to match up elements to perfection from a source document. Avoid
the unnecessary risk of human error and save time to boot!
02. Quick group multiple layers
Good housekeeping is crucial to use layers effectively. This
becomes critical when creating PSDs with many (potentially hundreds) of
layers. With states, styles and sections of the design grouped and
clearly labelled this will also aid the poor developer when he or she is
at the receiving end of your design. To create groups quickly and avoid
the confusion that comes with many selecting similar layers, simply
select the layers you wish to group and, once highlighted, hit
Cmd+G. There you have it! All layers selected are now in that group.
03. Alt-click layer marquee
This is most effective when joining different shaped elements across layers for a mask. Holding
Alt
whilst hovering over the vector or layer thumbnails will change the
cursor into a hand with a marquee. When clicked, a marquee will
automatically be applied to the perimeter of that shape or object. In
addition, holding
Shift will allow you to select and join multiple marquees: great for quick masking.
Tip provided by Pal, senior designer, Precedent London
04. Create a layer blending shortcut
The first thing I do when installing an oven-fresh Photoshop
instance is set up a shortcut for blending options. This isn't a
shortcut as standard but can be easily configured and you can choose any
combination of keys you deem fit. Using this shortcut to open the
blending dialogue saves an enormous amount of time cumulatively when
editing layer styles rather then laboriously selecting blending options
from the layer dropdown.
Tip by Ed, senior designer, Precedent Cardiff
05. Snap element to grid
This little number has got to be the worst kept secret for
anyone using Photoshop to create web elements. If you're aspiring to
pixel perfection with buttons, navigation or other vector elements,
select this lesser known 'snap to pixel' check box from the vector shape
dropdown. Bingo, no more fiddling with anchors to remove pixel bleed.
Tip by Andrew, designer, Precedent Perth, Australia
06. Auto select with the move tool
Another little timesaver that's not selected by default is auto-select using the move tool (
V).
Enabling this allows a single left click to select layers, or
additionally drag a rectangular marquee with this tool and select all
layers within the said marquee. Using this technique together with quick
layer grouping is a great way to organise other less well-kempt PSDs
(which I frequently have the pleasure of doing!).
07. Convert Point text to Paragraph text
Need to convert that point text into a paragraph but don't
want to have to copy and paste out all that content? No problem! It's
amazing how many people still don't know that Photoshop can convert
point text to paragraph text (and visa versa) at the drop of a hat.
Simply select the point text layer in question and select
'Convert to point text'. Hey presto! Converted without any messing
around whatsoever. This feature comes into its own when editing content
heavy/editorial designs, and don't forget you can also do this with
multiple text layers selected.
Tip by Sophie, designer, Precedent Edinburgh
08. Layer move
- Shortcuts: use Cmd+[ to demote layer, Cmd+] to promote layer, Cmd+Shift+[ to promote layer to top of layer stack, Cmd+Shift+] to demote layer to bottom of layer stack
Selected layers can be quickly shifted to the top/bottom of layer stacks.
This is another good housekeeping rule to remember if layers
and groups are in clear hierarchical order. This can be particularly
tricky to remember when a design is changing rapidly. This is a
technique best used to constantly assess and rearrange layers as you go.
This might seem another headache to deal with whilst designing but once
it's adopted its amazing how much time is saved later when there is
minimal layer searching to contend with.
Tip by Mark, senior designer, Precedent Edinburgh
09. Live editable text boundary
- Shortcuts: Shape tool: U, Text tool: T, Pen tool: P, Direct select tool: A
Using Photoshop when working with text can sometimes be a
cumbersome affair. Add another dimension of control by using shape and
pen tools to create a versatile text area that can wrap text around
images and other objects.
Create a rectangle or other vector shape. Now select your
type tool. You'll notice with the type tool selected the cursor will
change when hovering over shape created. Left-click within the shape,
text will now be inputted within the shape. It's now a simple case of
using the pen tool to edit the boundaries of the shape to create the
dimensions you desire. Finally knock the opacity down to 0% for the
container shape to become transparent.
This is a great way of styling up text on the fly, and can also be easily edited later if amendments are required.
10. Screen grab
This is great for grabbing colours, buttons, styles from
websites and media. Never underestimate the latent versatility of the
humble screen grab! I still use this daily to grab colours, patterns,
textures and other inspiration. Not only that, but capturing a portion
of the screen using
Shift+Cmd+4 displays a crosshairs
which handily displays the height and width in pixels of the area
selected. This is great for ascertaining grid widths, images and other
elements quickly.
Tip by Emma, designer, Precedent London
There you have it! Hopefully, these tips will contain some
insight to Photoshop veterans and newbies alike. Don't forget that every
fraction of a second saved counts toward the much bigger calmative
effect over time. This not only allows you to create faster but also
makes you a hotter prospect for clients and peers alike!