Adobe Photoshop for Beginners
IMPORTANCE OF QUICK KEYS:
To increase your overall efficiency while using Adobe Photoshop, it is critical to apply some effort in learning 'quick-keys'.
A quick-key is in effect a keyboard short-cut. When pressed in combination with another key, a quick key will send a command to Adobe Photoshop to perform a certain action. A good example of this can be found when holding down the 'CTRL' key and pressing the 'N'. This will cause the 'New' dialogue box to appear.
There are 100's of quick-keys to learn about in Adobe Photoshop. Most of them can be found next to commands within the menu system.
It would be an unrealistic objective to try and learn all quick-keys at this point. Indeed, you might not need to know all of them, just the ones that prove to be most useful to you. If you are applying a certain action or command on a regular basis in your work flow, rather than depending upon the menu system, take time in trying to learn its related quick-key.
Do I really need to use quick keys?
If you were to measure the time it takes to perform a certain command or action or change your current tool, and strike a comparison to how long it takes to summon that same procedure while using a quick-key, you would definitely opt for the later.
Experiment
Try the following experiment for yourself to help demonstrate the importance of using quick-keys.
1. Create a new canvas (CTRL + N) and set the size at 1000 by 1000 pixels (you may need to change the unit of measurement by clicking on the small drop-down boxes next to the Height and Width boxes).
2. Zoom %1600 in to your canvas.
3. Starting from the far left hand-side, using the brush tool 'B' (with a small brush, i.e. size '1') start to draw a line across your canvas.
4. Now change tool. Use the hand tool 'H' to move your canvas along a little to the to reveal more canvas on the right. If you wish you might want to repeat this experiment later and use the scroll-bars instead of the hand tool.
5. Now change tool again. Choose the brush tool and continue repeat from step 3 until you reach the far right of your canvas. If you zoom out, you should now see a line stretching from left to right.
Now repeat the same experiment, this time using the 'spacebar' to move you from left to right across your canvas. Notice how you don't even have to change tools, you can keep on using the brush tool - the spacebar (for as long as the key is pressed) will momentary become the hand tool.
If you were to time this experiment, this first method should take about 45 seconds to complete. The second method - 5 seconds.
Using a well rehearsed quick-key will take a fraction of a second to apply, saving your time and giving you more time to spend perfecting your artwork. Such a simple philosophy - and it works!
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