Keyboard shortcuts

Once your hands learn the keys, the whole editor speeds up. This is the full reference — tools, navigation, editing and text — grouped by the task you're doing.

How to read this#

Wherever you see ⌘/Ctrl, use ⌘ (Cmd) on a Mac and Ctrl on Windows and Linux. Tooltips and menus in the app show the platform-correct symbol automatically, so you never have to translate.

A few ground rules:

• Shortcuts act on the Canvas and the current selection.
• Single-key tool shortcuts pause while you're editing text or typing in any input field — so pressing T inside a text frame types the letter "t" instead of switching tools.
• There's no in-app cheat sheet, so bookmark this page.

Tools#

Every tool has a one-key shortcut. Tap the key with nothing focused in a text field and the tool switches instantly.

Tip: hold Space to switch to Pan just while you drag, then release to snap back to whatever tool you were using.

View & zoom#

Edit & history#

The everyday editing keys work the way they do everywhere else, plus a couple of extras worth learning.

Paste in place drops the copy at the exact coordinates it came from — handy for moving objects between Canvases without them shifting.

Arrange & group#

Move & transform#

Nudge a selection with the arrow keys for pixel-perfect placement, and set opacity straight from the number row.

• Arrow keys move the selection 1 px in that direction.
• Shift + arrow moves it 10 px at a time.
• Number keys 1–9 set opacity to 10–90%; 0 sets 100%. Type a quick second digit for an exact value — press 4 then 5 for 45%.

Text editing#

While you're editing text, these apply to the selected range — or to the whole frame if nothing is highlighted:

For everything else type-related, see Character & paragraph formatting.

Save, Escape & Enter#

⌘/Ctrl S runs Save design when you're signed in, uploading the current design to My designs.

Escape and Enter are the two keys that do the most work, because they adapt to what you're doing.

Escape steps back through your current context, one level at a time:

1. Cancel the pen path you're drawing
2. Exit point-editing
3. Cancel a crop or mask edit
4. Reset to the Select tool
5. Deselect everything
6. Close

Enter confirms a crop or mask edit, and finishes or re-enters editing on a Pen path.

Tip: if a shortcut seems dead, check that you're not inside a text frame or an input — click an empty part of the Canvas (or press Escape) to hand focus back to the editor.

Where to go next#

Put these to work in a tour of the workspace, and dig into the path keys in the Pen tool & editing paths.