120 Most Useful Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts.Using Adobe Illustrator keyboard shortcuts will help you create drawings faster and spend more time being creative. Use them regularly and you won’t have to constantly choose, find the right tool or create new shapes. This saves you the hassle of clicking multiple times to perform the desired action.When you browse the tool menu, you will notice that they already have a keyboard shortcut in brackets next to the name of each individual tool. For example, you’ll notice a (P) next to the Pen Tool. So, press P on your keyboard and you won’t have to go into the tool menu and manually select a pen.But Adobe Illustrator has a lot more shortcuts than just tools. You can use them to select elements, copy them, group elements, etc. This article lists the ones that are mostly used by both professionals and beginners. So use our keyboard shortcut tables for your cheat sheets. Also, be sure to check out our list of the best GIMP keyboard shortcuts for maximum productivity.
Most Popular Shortcuts
These keyboard shortcuts will help you interact with Adobe Illustrator and perform various tasks quickly. They are the most popular because they are actions that need to be repeated often, no matter what you are working on.
Action | Windows | macOS |
Undo | CTRL + Z | Command + Z |
Repeat | Shift + CTRL + Z | Shift + Command + Z |
Copy | CTRL + C | Command + C |
Cut | CTRL + X | Command + X |
Insert | CTRL + V | Command + V |
Insert in front | CTRL + F | Command + F |
Paste Back | CTRL + B | Command + B |
Paste In Place | Shift + CTRL + V | Shift + Command + V |
Paste on all open artboards | Alt + Shift + CTRL + V | Option + Shift + Command + V |
Spell Checker | CTRL + I | Command + I |
Open Color Settings Dialog Box | Shift + CTRL + K | Shift + Command + K |
Open the general settings dialog | CTRL + K | Command + K |
Help menu access | F1 | F1 |
Exit Illustrator | CTRL + Q | Command + Q |
Documents Related Shortcuts
The keyboard shortcuts listed in the following table will help you customize your document and work with it in a variety of ways. Use them to quickly create new documents or save existing ones. You can even use the shortcut to print your work without the hassle of browsing through various menus.
Action | Windows | macOS |
Create a new document | CTRL + N | Command + N |
Create new document from template | Shift + CTRL + N | Shift + Command + N |
Create document without dialog box | Alt + CTRL + N | Option + Command + N |
Open document | CTRL + O | Command + O |
Enter file into document | Shift + CTRL + P | Shift + Command + P |
Open File Info Dialog Box | Alt + Shift + CTRL + I | Option + Shift + Command+ I |
Open Document Setup dialog | Alt + CTRL + P | Option + Command + P |
View in Adobe Bridge | Alt+ Ctrl + O | Option + Command + O |
Close document window | CTRL + W | Command + W |
Save all changes made to the document | CTRL + S | Command + S |
Save a copy of the document | Alt + CTRL + S | Option + Command + S |
Open the Save for Web dialog | Alt + Shift + CTRL + S | Option + Shift + Command + S |
Pack document | Alt + Shift + CTRL + P | Option + Shift + Command + P |
Print document | CTRL + P | Command + P |
Adobe Illustrator Tool Shortcuts
Adobe Illustrator contains many useful tools that you will use regularly in your projects. As mentioned, many tools already have labels next to their name, but some of them are grouped together and you’ll have to navigate the toolbox a lot to find them. It would be best to memorize the ones you use most often. This way you don’t have to waste time searching through the tool menu every time you need to switch a tool.
Action | Windows | macOS |
Artboard Tool | Shift + o | Shift + O |
Select Tool | V | V |
Direct Selection Tool | A | A |
Magic Wand Tool | Y | Y |
Lasso Tool | Q | Q |
Pen Tool | P | P |
Type (Text) Tool | T | T |
Rectangle Tool | M | M |
Ellipse Tool | L | L |
Pencil Tool | N | N |
Tool ” Brush” | B | B |
Rotate Tool | R | R |
Reflection Tool | O | O |
Scaling tool | S | S |
Free Transform Tool | E | E |
Column Chart Tool | J | J |
Grid Tool | U | U |
Gradient Tool | G | G |
Pipette Tool | Me | I |
Blend Tool | W | W |
Live Paint Bucket Tool | K | K |
Scissors Tool | C | C |
Hand tool | H | H |
Scaling tool | Z | Z |
Curvature Tool | Shift + ~ | Shift + ~ |
Blob Brush Tool | Shift + B | Shift + B |
Add anchor point | + | + |
Remove anchor point | – | – |
Switch to Anchor Point Tool | Shift + C | Shift + C |
Touch Tool | Shift + T | Shift + T |
Shaper tool | Shift + N | Shift + N |
Warp Tool | Shift + R | Shift + R |
Width Tool | Shift + W | Shift + W |
Shape Tool | Shift + M | Shift + M |
Perspective Grid | Shift + P | Shift + P |
Perspective selection | Shift + V | Shift + V |
Character sprayer | Shift + S | Shift + S |
Selection Tool | Shift + L | Shift + L |
Slicer Tool | Shift + K | Shift + K |
Eraser Tool | Shift + E | Shift + E |
Switch between Anti-alias and Blob Brush | Press Alt | Press Option |
View and Navigation Shortcuts
The keyboard shortcuts described in the following table can help you quickly view a document and navigate through any of its sections.
Action | Windows | macOS |
Switch between screen modes | F | F |
Zoom 100% | CTRL + 1 | Command + 1 |
Hide Bounding Box | Shift + CTRL + B | Shift + Command + B |
Hide unselected objects | CTRL + Alt + Shift + 3 | Command + Option + Shift + 3 |
Show document template | CTRL + H | Command + H |
Show or hide artboards | CTRL + Shift + H | Command + Shift + H |
Show or hide artboard rulers | CTRL + R | Command + Option + R |
View all artboards in window | CTRL + Alt + 0 | Command + Option + 0 |
Exit artboard tool mode | Esc | Esc |
Go to next document | CTRL + F6 | Command + F6 |
Go to Previous Document | CTRL + Shift + F6 | Command + Shift + F6 |
Exit fullscreen | Esc | Esc |
Switch between online preview and GPU preview | CTRL + Y | Command + Y |
Switch between GPU and CPU preview | CTRL + E | Command + E |
Zoom In | CTRL + = | Command + = |
Zoom out | CTRL + – | Command + – |
Hide Guides | CTRL + ; | Command + ; |
Lock guides | Alt + CTRL + ; | Option + Command + ; |
Show grid | CTRL + ‘ | Command + ‘ |
Work With Selections
Working with selections can be tedious. This is very delicate work and you need a lot of practice to perfect it. But these shortcuts can help you in your workflow.
Action | Windows | macOS |
Select skin on active artboard | CTRL + Alt + A | Command + Option + A |
Select All | CTRL + A | Command + A |
Deselect | Shift + CTRL + A | Shift + Command + A |
Reselect | Ctrl + 6 | Command + 6 |
Group selections | CTRL + G | Command + G |
Ungroup selected elements | Shift + CTRL + G | Shift + Command + G |
Lock selected objects | CTRL + 2 | Command + 2 |
Unlock selection | Alt + CTRL + 2 | Option + Command +2 |
Hide selected objects | CTRL + 3 | Command + 3 |
Show all selections | Alt + CTRL + 3 | Option + Command + 3 |
Move selected object forward | CTRL + ] | Command +] |
Bring selection to front | Shift + CTRL + ] | Shift + Command + ] |
Send selected objects to back | CTRL + [ | Command + [ |
Move selection to back | Shift + CTRL + [ | Shift + Command + [ |
Work with Text
Text can be a huge part of your Adobe Illustrator projects. Here are some keyboard shortcuts to help you manipulate text faster.
Action | Windows | macOS |
Open Character Panel | CTRL + T | Command + T |
Open paragraph panel | Alt + CTRL + T | Option + Command + T |
Align paragraph left, right or center | CTRL + Shift + L,R or C | Command + Shift + L,R or C |
Increase font size | Alt + CTRL + . | Option + Command + . |
Decrease font size | Alt + CTRL + , | Option + Command +, |
Increase font size incrementally | Alt + up arrow + CTRL + . | Option + up arrow + CTRL + . |
Increase font size incrementally | Alt + up arrow + CTRL +, | Option + up arrow + CTRL + , |
Select Kerning | CTRL + Alt + K | Command + Option + K |
Kerning Tracking | Alt + CTRL + K | Option + CTRL + K |
Reset Kerning Tracking | CTRL + Alt + Q | Command + Option + Q |
Insert Markers | Alt + 8 | Option + 8 |
Insert copyright symbol | Alt + G | Option + G |
Align Left text | CTRL + Shift + J | Command + Shift + J |
Align all lines | Shift + CTRL + F | Shift + Command + F |
Superscript | Shift + CTRL + = | Shift + Command + = |
Subscript | Alt + Shift + CTRL + = | Option + Shift + Command + = |
Insert hyphen | Shift + CTRL + – | Shift + Command + – |
Show hidden characters | Alt + CTRL + I | Option + Command + I |
With a wide range of useful keyboard shortcuts in Adobe Illustrator, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t work on your design projects faster and with more precision. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced professional graphic designer, using this more efficient way of working can save you time and frustration. Learning these hotkeys can take some time and practice, but with a little dedication, the time will be well spent! Be sure to come back and check out our other posts if you’re looking for even more Adobe software tips and tricks.
120 Most Useful Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts
120 Most Useful Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts