20 Photoshop Tips To Speed Up Your Workflow.

Nothing marks out experienced Photoshop users from novices like the use of shortcuts - try the tips below to work like a pro and speed up your workflow.

Note that where I`ve put `Control/Command` below I mean use Control if you`re working in Windows and the Command key if you`re on a Mac.

. To Quickly change your brush size use the ] key to make it bigger, or the [ key to make it smaller.

. To quickly duplicate a layer or a selection, press Control - J (Windows) or Command-J (Mac)

. To quickly duplicate a layer, layer mask or style - hold down the alt key and drag it.

. If you are working with several layers and want to select an item quickly, select the move tool then right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) the item and select it from the contextual menu which appears.

. You probably know that you can undo your last action by pressing Control/Command-Z. To undo more than just the last action press Control/Command-Alt-Z.

. Hold Control/Command-T to transform a layer or a selection.

. Press the X key to swap your foreground and background colours.

. Press D to reset your foreground and background colours to black and white - the default colours.

. To draw a horizontal or vertical straight line with the brush tool, hold down the shift key as you drag with the brush.

. To quickly fill a layer or selection with the foreground colour press Alt-backspace, to fill with the background colour press Control/Command backspace.

. Pressing the tab key hides/shows all panels and tools.

. To hide the `marching ants` when making a selection, press Control/Command-H.

. To zoom out temporarily when working at a high magnification, hold down the H key, click and hold; then drag the box that appears to change the area of the image you are working on. Release to return to the magnification you were working in.

. When pulling out a selection marquee, hold the alt key to draw the marquee from the centre, rather than from the top left corner. Hold down the shift key to constrain the marquee to a square or circle.

. Hold down the spacebar whilst making a selection to move it, then release the spacebar to carry on making the selection.

. To close several open documents at once, shift-click the close icon for any of the windows.

. In the layers panel, Alt-click the eye icon of a layer to view that layer on its own, then Alt-click to make the layers visible again.

. Quickly organise layers into a layer group by selecting the layers and pressing Control/Command-G.

. You can change layer opacity by pressing a number key (when not in a painting tool) - 1 for 10%, 2 for 20%, 5 for 50% etc. If you try it when in a painting tool you will change the opacity of the paint stroke.

. To quickly make a selection from any layer or mask thumbnail, channel or path Control/Command click on it.