120 Most Useful Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts

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.