How to Create and Customize Keyboard Shortcuts in Photoshop

How to Create and Customize Keyboard Shortcuts in Photoshop

Photoshop ships with hundreds of keyboard shortcuts, and some of the operations you perform most often have none at all. There is no default shortcut for converting a layer to a Smart Object. There is no default shortcut for adding a layer mask. Both are things a working retoucher does dozens of times a day.

The fix is not to memorize Adobe’s choices. It is to assign your own, to the commands you actually use, with keys that make sense to you. Photoshop’s shortcut editor is one of the best in any application — every menu command in the program is reachable and reassignable.

Opening the Shortcut Editor

Go to Edit ? Keyboard Shortcuts. It sits right at the bottom of the Edit menu, easy to scroll past. The shortcut for the shortcut editor is Shift+Option+Cmd+K (Mac) or Shift+Alt+Ctrl+K (Windows).

The dialog groups shortcuts by where they live: Application Menus, Panel Menus, Tools, and Taskspaces. Most of what you want is under Application Menus, and it is organized exactly like the menu bar — so if you know a command is under Layer in the menus, it is under Layer here.

The Modifier Combination That Is Almost Always Free

The practical problem with assigning shortcuts is that the good keys are taken. Cmd+O is Open, Cmd+S is Save.

The answer is Shift+Option+Cmd on Mac, Shift+Alt+Ctrl on Windows. That three-modifier combination is largely unused by default, so nearly any letter is available. It leaves you free to pick a letter that is memorable rather than whatever happens to be unclaimed.

Once you adopt it as your personal prefix, your custom shortcuts become one consistent family instead of a scattered set.

Assign One: Convert to Smart Object

Any time you are about to run a filter, the layer should be a Smart Object first — that is what makes the filter re-editable afterwards. It is also a command with no default shortcut, which makes it the perfect first assignment.

1. Open Edit ? Keyboard Shortcuts

   Leave the menu set to Application Menus.

2. Expand Layer and scroll to Smart Objects

   The list is long. Expect to scroll — every command in the program is in here.

3. Click in the field beside Convert to Smart Object

   The field is empty because there is no default.

4. Press the combination you want

   Shift+Option+Cmd+O — O for Object. You physically press the keys rather than typing their names.

5. Click Accept, then OK

   The set is marked as modified from the default, which is expected.

Select a layer, press the combination, and it converts. Choose letters that mean something — O for Object, C for Camera Raw — because a mnemonic shortcut survives being unused for a week and an arbitrary one does not.

Reassign One That Already Exists

Camera Raw Filter defaults to Shift+Cmd+A. There is no obvious reason for A, and it is hard to retain.

Go back into the editor, expand Filter, find Camera Raw Filter, and assign Shift+Option+Cmd+C — C for Camera Raw.

Handling a Conflict

Photoshop will warn you that the combination is already assigned to Content-Aware Scale, and that accepting will remove it from there.

That is the right trade if you use Camera Raw constantly and Content-Aware Scale rarely. The warning is information, not an obstacle — nothing is lost permanently, and you can reassign the displaced command later if you miss it.

Click Accept and Go To Conflict and Photoshop takes you to the affected command so you can see exactly what changed.

Add a Shortcut for Layer Masks

This is the omission that surprises people most. Layer masks are fundamental to non-destructive editing and have no default shortcut.

In the editor, expand Layer and scroll to Layer Mask. You will find two options worth knowing apart:

Reveal All creates a white mask — the layer stays fully visible and you paint black to hide. Hide All creates a black mask — the layer is hidden entirely and you paint white to reveal.

Reveal All is the common case. Assign it Shift+Option+Cmd+M — M for Mask.

Now masking is one keystroke: press the combination, take the brush, paint black where you want the layer hidden.

The Best One: Hide Layers

This is the shortcut worth setting up even if you set up no others.

Under Layer, find Hide Layers and assign it Shift+Option+Cmd+V. It toggles the visibility of whatever layers are currently selected — the same as clicking the eye icon, but without going near the Layers panel.

Two things make it valuable. It works on a multiple selection, so you can toggle an entire stack of adjustment layers at once. And it works in full-screen mode: press F for full screen and Tab to hide every panel, so nothing is on screen but the image, and the toggle still works.

That gives you a clean, uninterrupted before-and-after of your whole edit — which is genuinely difficult to get any other way, since the alternative is clicking eye icons one at a time with the panels in view.

Print the Whole List

At the bottom of the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog there is a Summarize button. It exports every shortcut in Photoshop as an HTML file you can open in a browser and print.

The useful part is that it includes your custom assignments alongside the defaults, so the summary reflects your actual Photoshop rather than a generic reference chart. It is a good way to find shortcuts you did not know existed for things you have been doing through the menus.

Save and Move Your Shortcuts

Custom shortcuts live in a set that can be saved to a file.

Click the save icon at the top of the dialog and name it — something like PS2025.kys. That file can be loaded into another installation, which matters more often than you would think:

Moving to a new computer. Upgrading to a new Photoshop version. Moving between the release version and the beta. Setting up a second machine to match your main one. Sharing a standard set across a team so everyone works the same way.

Load it by double-clicking the file, or through the same dialog. Without it, every custom shortcut has to be rebuilt by hand.

Which Ones to Make

The rule is simple: anything you do repeatedly that currently takes a trip to the menus.

Convert to Smart Object, Add Layer Mask, and Hide Layers are the three with the best return, because all three are frequent and none has a default. Beyond that, reassign anything whose built-in shortcut you keep failing to remember — the built-in choice has no authority over yours.

Use one modifier family for everything you add, pick letters that stand for the command, and save the set out when you are done.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Open the editorEdit > Keyboard Shortcuts, or Shift + Option + Cmd + K (Windows: Shift + Alt + Ctrl + K)
• Find a commandShortcuts For: Application Menus; the list follows the menu bar (Layer > Smart Objects, Filter > Camera Raw Filter…)
• Free combinationShift + Option + Cmd + a letter is usually open (Windows: Shift + Alt + Ctrl)
• Aaron’s fourConvert to Smart Object = O · Camera Raw Filter = C · Layer Mask > Reveal All = M · Hide Layers = V (all with Shift + Option + Cmd)
• Conflict warningAccept and Go To Conflict takes the key from the other command (Camera Raw took it from Content-Aware Scale)
• Make it stickClick OK; shortcuts are saved when you quit Photoshop
• Print the listSummarize writes an HTML file of every shortcut, including yours
• Move themThe save icon writes a set file; double-click it on another install or version to load it

Every menu item shows its current shortcut to the right of its name.