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Sneaky Little Photoshop Tricks

A couple of Photoshop tips, tricks, and shortcuts you may or may not know.Key board shortcuts are for mac translate accordingly for pc.

Scale from center
Need to make a clown nose right on friends face. Try this out. When you are using the Marquee tools or or Shape tool, hold down Opt + Shift + drag will scale proportionally from the center.

Scroll left to right or right to left
Hold down the Cmd key and scroll up or down allows you to scroll the page left or right. Up=right. Down=left.

Zoom in/out with scroll wheel
Hold Cmd + Opt + scroll up or down.

Blending mode keyboard short cuts
Normal = Opt + Shift + N
Screen = Opt + Shift + S
Darken = Opt + Shift + K
Multiply = Opt + Shift + M
Overlay = Opt + Shift + O
Color = Opt + Shift + C
+ Many more. Go ahead Experiment.

Change Layer Opacity
You can change the layer opacity by pressing
the number keys. 1=10%, 2=20%, 3=30%. You get the picture. This will also adjust the opacity for the brush tool when selected as well as the gradient tool.

Fill background or foreground color
Opt + Delete fills layer with the foreground color.
Cmd + Delete fills layer with the background color.

Drag selection
With the Marquee tool selected, drag but do not release the mouse, then hold down the Space bar, you will be able to drag the selection.

Collapse/expand all layer groups
Collapse or expand all level 1 layer groups by holding down Cmd +
click on the triangle icon. Hold Cmd + Opt + click on the triangle
icon will collapse or expand all level's groups.

Duplicate layer
Take your Pick:
Hold down Cmd + Opt + drag to duplicate the layer you are on.
Cmd + Opt + arrow keys.
Cmd + J will duplicate layer you are on in same location.
Hold down Opt + drag within the Layers palette.

Cross hair cursor
Hit Caps lock.

Lock layer transparency
Press / key to lock layer transparency.

Hide all other layers
Hold Opt and click on the eyeball icon. This will hide all the other layers.

Zoom to 100%
Double click the Zoom tool, it will zoom the document to 100%.

Show/hide rulers
Press Cmd + R

Make a Marquee selection using a layer shape
Cmd + click the layer thumbnail.

These are just a few trick I use on a frequent basis. There are literally thousands more. Share yours.

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