Complete Affinity Photo keyboard shortcuts reference — 161 shortcuts across 11 categories. Quick reference cheat sheet for Windows.
Affinity Photo's default keymap is deliberately close to Photoshop's — the tool letters, bracket keys and Ctrl + J for duplicate all carry over — so switching costs little. The differences worth knowing are in the Personas (the app's modes), the blend-mode shortcuts, and a handful of layer keys that Photoshop lacks. The table is the Windows keymap; on macOS use Cmd.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Alt + I | Resize Document |
| Ctrl + Alt + C | Resize Canvas |
| Ctrl + . | Set Selection Box |
| ; | Toggle Snapping |
| X | Switch between Stroke/Fill colours |
| Shift + X | Swap Stroke/Fill colours |
| D | Set default Stroke/Fill colours |
| / | Set No fill on Stroke/Fill |
| O | Toggle between Crop Tool overlays |
| Shift + O | Flip golden spiral overlay |
| Alt + Backspace | Fill with Foreground Colour |
| Ctrl + Backspace | Fill with Background Colour |
| Alt + Shift + Backspace | Inpaint |
| Escape | Cancel a sizing, moving, or creating operation |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + N | New Document |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N | New from Clipboard |
| Ctrl + O | Open Document |
| Ctrl + W | Close Document |
| Ctrl + Alt + W | Close All Documents |
| Ctrl + Tab | Switch Document/View |
| Ctrl + S | Save |
| Ctrl + Shift + S | Save As |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S | Export |
| Ctrl + P |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| H | View Tool |
| V | Move Tool |
| I | Colour Picker Tool |
| C | Crop Tool |
| W | Selection Brush and Flood Select Tool cycle |
| M | Marquee Selection Tools cycle |
| L | Freehand Selection Tool |
| G | Flood Fill and Gradient cycle |
| B | Paint Brush Tool |
| R | Colour Replacement Brush Tool |
| Y | Pixel Tool |
| E | Erase Tools cycle |
| K | Clone Brush Tool |
| S | Smudge Brush Tool |
| J | Retouch Tools cycle |
| P | Pen and Node Tool cycle |
| Z | Zoom Tool |
| U | Rectangle, Ellipse and Rounded Rectangle cycle |
| T | Text Tools cycle |
| N | Liquify Punch Tool |
| F | Liquify Freeze Tool |
| A | Transform Source Image Tool |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + Shift + Z | Redo |
| Ctrl + Shift + C | Copy Merged |
| Ctrl + Shift + V | Paste Style |
| Alt + Shift + V | Paste FX |
| Ctrl + Alt + V | Paste Inside |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + V | Paste without Format |
| Shift + F5 | Fill |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Alt + A | Select All Layers |
| Alt + ] | Select Next Layer |
| Alt + [ | Select Previous Layer |
| Ctrl + Up | Select Parent Layer |
| Ctrl + G | Group |
| Ctrl + Shift + G | Ungroup |
| Ctrl + J | Duplicate |
| Ctrl + Shift + F | Fade |
| Ctrl + I | Invert |
| Ctrl + Shift + ] | Move to Front |
| Ctrl + ] | Move Forward One |
| Ctrl + Shift + [ | Move to Back |
| Ctrl + [ | Move Back One |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + H | Show All |
| Ctrl + L | Lock |
| Ctrl + Shift + L | Unlock |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + L | Unlock All |
| Ctrl + Shift + N | New Layer |
| Ctrl + Shift + R | Rename Layer |
| Ctrl + E | Merge Down |
| Ctrl + Shift + E | Merge Selected |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E | Merge Visible |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + T | Show Character panel |
| Ctrl + Shift + T | Show Typography panel |
| Ctrl + Shift + ; | Spelling Options |
| Left | Move insertion point one character left |
| Right | Move insertion point one character right |
| Ctrl + Left | Move insertion point to start of word |
| Ctrl + Right | Move insertion point to end of word |
| Home | Move insertion point to start of line |
| End | Move insertion point to end of line |
| Ctrl + Home | Move insertion point to start of text frame |
| Ctrl + End | Move insertion point to end of text frame |
| Ctrl + Down | Move insertion point to start of next paragraph |
| Delete | Delete character to right of insertion point |
| Ctrl + Delete | Delete from insertion point to end of word |
| Ctrl + > | Bigger text |
| Ctrl + < | Smaller text |
| Ctrl + Alt + > | Precise bigger text |
| Ctrl + Alt + < | Precise smaller text |
| Ctrl + Shift + = | Superscript |
| Ctrl + Alt + - | Subscript |
| Alt + Left | Tighten tracking |
| Alt + Right | Loosen tracking |
| Alt + Shift + Left | Tighten tracking more |
| Alt + Shift + Right | Loosen tracking more |
| Alt + Down | Increase Paragraph Leading |
| Alt + Up | Decrease Paragraph Leading |
| Ctrl + Alt + Down | Precise Increase Paragraph Leading |
| Ctrl + Alt + Up | Precise Decrease Paragraph Leading |
| Shift + Enter | Line Break |
| Alt + Space | Non-Breaking Space |
| Ctrl + Shift + - | Soft Hyphen |
| Alt + - | En Dash |
| Alt + Shift + - | Em Dash |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R | Reset document view rotation |
| Ctrl + = | Zoom In |
| Ctrl + - | Zoom Out |
| Ctrl + 2 | Zoom to 200% |
| Ctrl + 3 | Zoom to 400% |
| Ctrl + 4 | Zoom to 800% |
| Ctrl + 8 | Zoom to Actual Size |
| Ctrl + 9 | Zoom to Pixel Size |
| Space | Hot key panning |
| Ctrl + R | Show Rulers |
| Ctrl + ; | Show Guides |
| Ctrl + ' | Show Grid |
| ' | Grid Plane cycle |
| , | Split View cycle |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + A | Select All |
| Ctrl + D | Deselect |
| Ctrl + Shift + I | Invert Pixel Selection |
| Ctrl + B | Grow/Shrink |
| Shift + F6 | Feather |
| Ctrl + Alt + R | Refine Edges |
| Q | Quick Mask |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Shift + H | Show/Hide Studio panels |
| Ctrl + Alt + T | Show/Hide Toolbar |
| Tab | Toggle UI |
| Ctrl + H | Hide Workspace |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + U | HSL |
| Ctrl + M | Curves |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B | Black and White |
| Ctrl + F | Repeat Filter |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Shift + = | Next Blend Mode |
| Shift + - | Previous Blend Mode |
| Alt + Shift + N | Normal |
| Alt + Shift + K | Darken |
| Alt + Shift + M | Multiply |
| Alt + Shift + B | Colour Burn |
| Alt + Shift + A | Linear Burn |
| Alt + Shift + G | Lighten |
| Alt + Shift + S | Screen |
| Alt + Shift + D | Colour Dodge |
| Alt + Shift + W | Add |
| Alt + Shift + O | Overlay |
| Alt + Shift + F | Soft Light |
| Alt + Shift + H | Hard Light |
| Alt + Shift + J | Linear Light |
| Alt + Shift + Z | Pin Light |
| Alt + Shift + L | Hard Mix |
| Alt + Shift + E | Difference |
| Alt + Shift + X | Exclusion |
| Alt + Shift + U | Hue |
| Alt + Shift + T | Saturation |
| Alt + Shift + C | Colour |
| Alt + Shift + Y | Luminosity |
V move, B brush, C crop, M marquee, L freehand selection, K clone, S smudge, Z zoom and T text are where a Photoshop user expects them; W is the selection brush, which is Affinity's quick-select. Several letters cycle through a group of related tools — pressing J repeatedly walks the retouch tools, E the erasers — rather than opening a flyout. X swaps stroke and fill colours and D resets them to defaults.
Ctrl + J duplicates the layer, Ctrl + G groups, Ctrl + Shift + N adds an empty pixel layer and Ctrl + E merges down; Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E merges everything visible into a new layer for a final sharpening pass. Alt + ] and Alt + [ select the next and previous layer without touching the panel, and Ctrl + Up selects the parent of a nested layer. Order is Ctrl + ] and Ctrl + [ one step, with Shift for front and back. Ctrl + L locks a layer.
Ctrl + D deselects, Ctrl + Shift + I inverts a pixel selection, Shift + F6 feathers it and Ctrl + Alt + R opens Refine Edges — the panel for hair and fur. Q toggles Quick Mask. The most-used adjustments have direct keys: Ctrl + M curves, Ctrl + U HSL; black and white gets the longer Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B. Blend modes are on Alt + Shift plus a letter — Alt + Shift + M multiply, Alt + Shift + S screen, Alt + Shift + O overlay — and Shift + = and Shift + - step through them on the selected layer.
Most tool letters and layer keys match. Affinity has its own bindings for blend modes, Personas and some selection commands; the app's Preferences › Shortcuts lets you remap anything.
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E. Ctrl + E merges down onto the layer below instead.
Press the tool letter repeatedly: E cycles the eraser tools, J the retouch tools, W the selection tools.
Shift + = and Shift + - step forward and back through the blend modes; Alt + Shift + letter jumps to a specific one.
Open your assistant with this page preloaded as the source — great for follow-up questions like "which of these work in other apps?"