Its always best to use the number keys at the top of the keyboard. If you want a setting such as 15%, press 1 then 5 very quickly. To adjust the brush opacity, press a number key from 1 to 0 and your brush opacity will change from 10% up to 100%. Anything less than 100% opacity will reveal the layer/image underneath the colour. An opacity percentage of 100% will give an opaque colour – a colour that you can’t see through. Opacity controls how see-through a colour is. Shift + ] will increase the hardness of the brushĬtrl + Alt + Right– click (windows) or Control + Option + Click (mac) and drag your mouse upwards to soften the brush or downwards to increase the hardness. This option will provide an on-screen display showing your brush hardness setting as shown below. Shift + [ will reduce the hardness of the brush so making it softer
This option will provide an on-screen display showing your brush size diameter, as shown below. Brush SizeĬtrl + Alt + Right– click (windows) or Control + Option + Click (mac) and drag your mouse to the left to reduce the size or to the right to increase the size. Then press the Caps Lock key so you can see the brush size. Cursor Size and ShapeĮnsure that you can see the size of your brush, which will vary in size but will normally be circular like this: To select the Brush Tool press the b key. Brush Tool: Which keyboard shortcut makes the current tool a brush? So lets look at some Adobe Photoshop keyboard shortcuts to speed things up a bit.
With so many uses it is important to use it efficiently. The Brush Tool is a very useful tool for all things that need painting – such as layer masks, colour changes, modifying selection etc. How do you quickly change brushes in Photoshop?