Photoshop keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac

Where is the official list of Photoshop keyboard shortcuts?

The official list is Adobe's default keyboard shortcuts page for Photoshop. Bookmark it and treat it as the reference, because it comes from the people who set the keys.

We went to it on 3 November 2026, but the key list itself did not come through in our check. So we haven't retyped a table here. A shortcut list with one wrong modifier key does more harm than a link to the real one.

Read the official list with a job in mind rather than top to bottom:

1. Pick the areas you use every hour, for example viewing and zoom, brushes, selections and layers.
2. Under each, mark the commands you press most.
3. Write them down with the exact keys for your system, Windows or macOS. That short list is what you move to the mouse later on this page.

If you also cut in Premiere Pro or animate in After Effects, we keep the same kind of page for Premiere Pro keyboard shortcuts and After Effects keyboard shortcuts. The shortcuts and key-mapping hub lists every editor we cover.

A note before the rest: we make mouzeclick, the mouse app that appears in the later sections. The built-in and free routes come first, and mouzeclick is one option among them.

What is the Photoshop zoom shortcut key, and can the mouse do it?

Use the zoom keys that Adobe's official list gives for your system. We couldn't read that list on 3 November 2026, so we don't repeat the keys here. Whatever they are, a mouse app can send them from a button, a gesture or the scroll wheel, so you can zoom without reaching for the keyboard.

Zoom suits the mouse because you press it in bursts: in, in, in, then back out to check the whole image. Pressing a modifier and a key six times in a row is slow. A flick of the mouse is not.

There are three ways to set it up in mouzeclick. All of them sit in Photoshop's own profile, so other apps keep their normal behaviour:

• Gesture directions. Hold a side button and move up for zoom in and down for zoom out. Left and right stay free for two more view commands from Adobe's list.
• Scroll or tilt. Scroll and tilt can each run their own action, per app. If your mouse has a tilting wheel, a tilt is a natural home for a view command you use often.
• Hold and scroll. One of a button's slots is hold-and-scroll. Plain scrolling keeps doing what it does now, and the held version zooms.

Because buttons work per app, the same side button can zoom in Photoshop and cut a clip in Premiere Pro. The mapping changes the moment you switch windows, with nothing to toggle.

What is the shortcut for brush size in Photoshop on Windows and Mac?

Use the brush-size keys on Adobe's official shortcuts page for your system, and check the same page for any brush opacity keys. We couldn't read the key list on 3 November 2026, so we don't print keys here. You change brush size many times a session, which makes it one of the best commands to move off the keyboard.

Brush size is a back-and-forth command. You nudge it up for a broad stroke, down for an edge, then up again. Two slots you can press without looking work better than one shortcut you have to hunt for:

• Put smaller brush and larger brush on opposite gesture directions of one side button, for example left and right.
• If zoom already takes your gesture directions, put them on a chord (hold one button, press another) and on a hold-and-scroll.
• If you set opacity with keys from Adobe's list, put the values you use most on the Options wheel, where each one is a single flick.

On a Mac the setup is the same. The mouzeclick app sits in the menu bar, and the four install steps are on the Mac install page. On a MacBook keyboard, the wheels open with Fn + F8 and Fn + F9. You can also turn on "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys".

One thing a mouse app doesn't touch is pointer speed for fine brush work. mouzeclick doesn't change DPI, polling rate or the sensor. Those stay with your mouse maker's software, so set them there first.

How do I use Photoshop layer shortcuts faster?

Sort your layer commands by how often you press them. Put the top few on mouse buttons, the next group on gesture directions, and the occasional ones on the Options wheel. Take the keys themselves from Adobe's list.

Layer work is a long tail. You press a handful of commands constantly, and many more come up a few times an hour. Trying to remember keys for all of them is where people slow down.

Here is how the slots on one mouse button split that load in mouzeclick:

Each button has eleven slots: tap, hold and move in four directions, a chord with another button, or hold and scroll. Any button can be the gesture button. A quick tap still clicks, and holding and moving runs the gesture.

The Options wheel holds 48 favourites per app on three rings of 12, 16 and 20. Middle-click steps out to the next ring. Hold and release to pick, or press once and pick; the same button or Esc cancels. Put the layer commands you use daily on the inner ring's 12 slots and push the rarer ones outward.

For a fixed routine, record a macro. mouzeclick chains keys, clicks, waits, typed text and launches. If your routine names layers the same way each time, a layer command followed by a short wait and a typed name can run from one press.

How do I change Photoshop shortcuts or make custom ones?

There are three places to change keys: inside Photoshop itself, in a system remapper such as PowerToys Keyboard Manager on Windows, or in a mouse app that sends keys per app. Each one changes something different, so pick by what you want to move.

Inside Photoshop. To change keys inside Photoshop itself, follow Adobe's shortcut help. We couldn't read the menu path or setting names there on 3 November 2026, so we won't print a path we'd be guessing. Changing keys inside the app keeps everything in Photoshop, which is the cleanest route if you only need two or three swaps.

Outside Photoshop, on Windows. PowerToys Keyboard Manager remaps keys and shortcuts and can map keys to text sequences. To remap a shortcut:

1. Open Keyboard Manager in PowerToys. Since PowerToys 0.100, new installations open the redesigned WinUI 3 editor by default, and a toggle switches back to the legacy editor.
2. Select Remap a shortcut, then Add shortcut remapping.
3. In Select, choose the keys you want to press.
4. In To send, choose the shortcut Photoshop should receive.
5. Set Photoshop as the target application. If you leave the target empty, the remap applies across all of Windows.

Keyboard Manager has rules for shortcuts. A shortcut must begin with a modifier (Ctrl, Shift, Alt or Win) and end with an action key. It can't exceed four keys, or five if it is a chord. F1 to F12 and F13 to F24 can be mapped. Our keyboard remapping software roundup compares other options.

On the mouse. A mouse app sends Photoshop's own keys from buttons, gestures and wheels, so Photoshop's shortcut set stays untouched. That route is covered below. For more depth, see our guides to remapping mouse buttons on Windows and remapping mouse buttons on a Mac.

Why are my Photoshop shortcuts not working?

Often something else catches the keys before Photoshop sees them, or the key has been changed. Work through these checks in order.

1. Check the key itself. Compare what you press with Adobe's default list. If someone on the machine set custom keys, the default you remember may no longer be assigned.
2. Look for a global remap. A PowerToys Keyboard Manager remap with no target application applies across all of Windows, Photoshop included. Open Keyboard Manager and look for a remap that uses your key.
3. Pause other input tools. Quit any remapper, macro tool or mouse software you run, then try the key again. If you use mouzeclick on Windows, Ctrl + Alt + F12 stops it at once, which makes the test quick.
4. Know the keys you can't move. Win + L and Ctrl + Alt + Del are reserved by Windows and can't be remapped in Keyboard Manager. The Fn key can't be remapped in most cases.
5. Check administrator mode on Windows. Apps running as administrator ignore apps that are not elevated. If Photoshop runs as administrator and your mouse shortcuts do nothing there, pick Restart as administrator in mouzeclick's tray menu.
6. Check permissions on a Mac. mouzeclick needs Accessibility and Input Monitoring. Turn both on, then quit the app and open it again.
7. Check the connection. mouzeclick needs internet while it runs, because the licence and profiles live in your account. If the connection drops, shortcuts pause and the mouse acts as a normal mouse until it returns.

If a side button does nothing in any app, the problem is below Photoshop. Our guide to mouse side buttons that don't work covers that.

Why do Photoshop shortcuts keep resetting?

We couldn't read Adobe's own guidance on saving, exporting or resetting shortcut sets on 3 November 2026, so check Adobe's help pages for that part. Here is what you control yourself:

• Keep a written list of every custom key you rely on, so a reset costs minutes rather than an afternoon.
• Move personal keys out of Photoshop. A mouse button that sends a default Photoshop key keeps working even if Photoshop's custom set goes back to defaults.
• mouzeclick profiles live in your account. On Windows, cloud sync carries profiles, gestures, hotkeys and every wheel to any Windows computer you sign in on.
• If another app keeps grabbing a combination you need, a mouzeclick keyboard hotkey can block that combination.

How do I put Photoshop shortcuts on mouse buttons with mouzeclick (we make it)?

Install the app, press each mouse button once, open Photoshop's profile and drop shortcuts onto buttons, gestures and the Options wheel. This section is ours: mouzeclick is our product, and it is one way to do this, not the only one.

1. Start the free trial. It lasts 3 days and needs no card. The key and download links arrive by email, and the 3 days start the first time you open the app with the key. There is one trial per person and per computer.
2. Install and paste the key. On Windows, the app runs from the tray. On a Mac, drag it to Applications and allow it once in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Security › Open Anyway. Turn it on under Accessibility and Input Monitoring, then quit and reopen it. Click the menu-bar icon › Open settings, paste the key and press Activate. Apple has not notarized the Mac app yet, which is why macOS asks the first time.
3. Press each mouse button once. The settings page is then built around the buttons your mouse really has. It works with any mouse your computer sees, wired, wireless or Bluetooth. It uses up to five standard buttons plus scroll and tilt, with no driver.
4. Open Photoshop's profile. Each app gets its own profile. Recent beta builds of the app include ready-made wheels for Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop and CapCut, filled with everyday editing actions. A wheel you have already set up is never changed.
5. Assign shortcuts. Pick from the built-in library, which has 309 shortcuts on Windows, 48 of them for Photoshop. You can also record any key from Adobe's list yourself, on Windows or Mac. A library shortcut can go on a button, a hold-and-scroll, a gesture or the wheel.
6. Fill the Options wheel. Put your long tail of layer, filter and view commands on the 48 Photoshop favourites. See how the three wheels behave on the home page.
7. Add the Orbit switch. F9 shows every open app as an icon, the last used first. If you bounce between Photoshop and Premiere Pro, it beats hunting through the taskbar.

What runs where. The mouse app runs on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS 12 or newer, on Apple Silicon and Intel. That covers its per-app buttons, chords, gestures, hold-and-scroll, hotkeys and macros, plus the Options wheel and the Orbit switch. Cloud sync of settings and in-app updates are Windows only. The Tool wheel works only in Premiere Pro and After Effects, so it isn't part of a Photoshop setup. The workspaces, captions and Retakes are Windows-only tools for Premiere Pro and After Effects, so they don't apply here either.

If you edit video too, the same app carries over: see Premiere Pro shortcuts on any mouse and the After Effects radial menu. If you own a Logitech mouse and wonder how this differs from the maker's software, our Logitech Options+ alternative page sets it out. Plans are in the pricing section: $25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys.

Questions people ask

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.

1. Adobe: default keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop (official list)
2. Adobe Photoshop product page: prices (checked 3 Nov 2026)
3. Adobe Photoshop plans: subscription only
4. Adobe Photoshop free trial
5. Microsoft PowerToys overview
6. Microsoft PowerToys Keyboard Manager

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