7 Helpful Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts
1. Temporarily Access The Hand Tool
The Hand Tool is responsible for panning and moving around a document, and it is one of the most used tools in Illustrator. No matter what type of artwork you’re working on, you’ll likely need to move around that artwork so that you can see the area that you’re working on.
Hand Tool Shortcuts:
Mac: Spacebar
Windows: Spacebar
Hand Tool Shortcuts (While Editing Text)
Mac: Cmd + Spacebar
Windows: Ctrl + Spacebar
2. Temporarily Access The Zoom Tool
The Hand Tool is often accompanied by the Zoom Tool. Just as the name implies, the Zoom Tool zooms in and zooms out of a document. The Zoom Tool and Hand Tool are often used together because you’ll need to navigate around a document that has been enlarged using the Zoom Tool.
Zoom In Shortcuts:
Mac: Cmd + Spacebar
Windows: Ctrl + Spacebar
Zoom Out Shortcuts:
Mac: Cmd + Option+Spacebar
Windows: Ctrl + Alt + Spacebarr
3. Access The Selection Tool And Direct Selection Tool
The Selection and Direct Selection Tools are another set of commonly used tools. Before, editing anything in Illustrator, you’ll have to select it first. This means that you’ll be using the Selection and Direct Selection tools frequently throughout every project. Because these tools are so popular, there are a variety of ways to quickly access them.
The Selection Tool is used to select entire objects or groups. The Direct Selection Tool is used to select the individual points and paths on an object. When using the shortcut to temporarily switch over to the Selection or Direct Selection Tool, the tool you last used will be the tool that is activated.
Access The Selection Tool
Mac: V
Windows V
Access The Direct Selection Tool:
Mac: A
Windows: A
Temporarily Switch To The Selection or Direct Selection Tool (While Keeping The Current Tool Active)
Mac: Cmd
Windows: Ctrl
4. Scale Objects Proportionally
Sometimes, you need to change the size of an object. Maybe the object is too big or it’s not quite big enough. Either way, once you’ve created an object, it’s likely that you don’t want to ruin that object by stretching and warping it. Luckily, there’s an easy way to scale objects proportionally in Illustrator.
Shortcuts for Scaling Objects
Mac: Shift + drag bounding box
Windows: Shift + drag bounding box
5. Change The Size Of Type
In addition to scaling objects proportionally, there will come a time when you need to change the text size of some type in Illustrator. If you’ve spent any amount of time in the graphic design community, then you know the importance of not distorting your type. Just like any other object, there are some easy shortcuts for proportionally increasing and decreasing the size of you text.
Shortcuts For Changing Type Size:
Mac: Cmd + Shift + < or >
Windows: Ctrl + Shift + < or >
6. Undo And Redo Actions
Mistakes happen. Sometimes you delete something you shouldn’t have, other times you pick a color that doesn’t work with your theme. Illustrator is very forgiving, and let’s you undo and redo actions over and over again. Even for the most experienced designers, the undo and redo tools are used multiple times throughout a project.
Shortcuts For Undoing The Previous Action:
Mac: Cmd + Z
Windows: Ctrl + Z
Shortcuts For Redoing The Previous Action:
Mac: Shift + Cmd + Z
Windows: Shift + Ctrl + Z
7. Cut, Copy & Paste
Cut, Copy and Paste are similar to the selection tools in that there are several ways to access them. You can use the keyboard shortcuts or the menu bar to choose the option you need. Before going over the shortcuts, let’s briefly discuss what each of the options in the Cut, Copy, & Paste family means.
Cut: This will add the selected item to the clipboard and remove it from the art board.
Copy: This will add the selected item to the clipboard, but it will not be removed from the art board.
Paste: This will add the item from the clipboard to the art board.
Paste In Place: This will add the item from the clipboard in the exact location it was copied from.
Paste In Front: Similar to Paste In Place, Paste In Front adds the item from the clipboard on top or in front of the currently selected object.
Paste In Back: This adds an item from the clipboard behind or in back of the currently selected object.
Shortcuts For Access The Cut, Copy & Paste Functions:
Cut:
Mac: Cmd + X
Windows: Ctrl + V
Copy:
Mac: Cmd + C
Windows Ctrl + C
Paste:
Mac: Cmd + V
Windows: Ctrl + V
Paste In Place:
Mac: Shift + Cmd + B
Windows Shift + Ctrl + B
Paste In Front:
Mac: Cmd + F
Windows: Ctrl + F
Paste In Back:
Mac: Cmd + B
Windows: Ctrl + B
