Whether you are a UI/UX designer, an animator, a photographer, or a graphic designer like myself, chances are you can agree that keyboard shortcuts are a lifesaver. When faced with tight deadlines on the regular, it is important to do whatever you can to get the most out of your work time. As a graphic designer here at Red Shark Digital, saving time is a crucial aspect of our everyday. Servicing graphic design needs in Greenville, NC can be more fast-paced than you would think, surprisingly.Switching from one tool to the next within a program is sometimes one of the most time-consuming parts of the entire project. Long-time Adobe users can attest, knowing what window and drop-down to choose for certain tools can be a pain to remember. Especially since there are twenty different ways to do one thing in each different program. To better help ourselves navigate our favorite program (Adobe Illustrator), we put together a list of the useful and most used keyboard shortcuts, that hopefully will help boost your productivity like it has for us. Indefinitely, we will probably miss a few, so if you don’t see your favorite on the list feel, free to share them with us! Or take a stab at making your own cheat sheet like the one we made below.

We broke these shortcuts down into subheadings to ease with navigation further.

Select and Move

Copy an Object while Dragging - Option + Drag ObjectMove Entire Selection - Make Selection + Use Arrow KeysSelecting Multiple Objects - Hold Shift + Select Objects

Altering Typography

Decrease / Increase Font Size - Command + Shift + < or >Decrease / Increase Leading - Option + Arrow Keys Up or DownDecrease / Increase Kern / Track - Option + Arrow Keys Left or RightAlign Type Left, Right or Center - Command + Shift + L, R or CJustify Text - Command + Shift + J

Shift Tool Shortcuts

Convert Anchor Points - Shift + CBlob Brush - Shift + BEraser - Shift + ESymbol Sprayer - Shift + SLive Paint Selection - Shift + LArtboard Tool - Shift + OSlice Tool - Shift + KSwap Fill and Stroke - Shift + XIt is no secret that keyboard shortcuts are more than just a useful way to change the pace of your workflow, but also time and lifesavers. They are ideal for any and every designer; no matter what type of design you do or what your skill level may be, these Adobe Illustrator shortcuts can without a doubt benefit you in your everyday design grind. Like we mentioned earlier as well, there are many other shortcuts that are unique to their respective Adobe programs. In this article, we covered just a few of what we consider our most essential Adobe Illustrator shortcuts, also known as hotkeys. We encourage designing daily and practicing using shortcuts to the tools you use regularly. It may seem daunting at first, but the more you put these tactics to use – the faster and more efficient you will become.