Once you begin to get comfortable using Illustrator, you’ll likely want to do certain tasks faster. Whether it’s managing the type of view, resizing design elements, or quickly grouping objects, keyboard shortcuts can make your life much easier. There are often tasks that occur several dozen times throughout the design process that you’ll want to speed up. Let’s go over 10 of the most useful Adobe Illustrator keyboard shortcuts.
#1 - Selection Tool
Press
V
to select
By default, the Selection Tool is the first tool that appears in the Toolbar as is pre-selected when you first open the application. Even though it's already selected when you open Illustrator, it's a very helpful shortcut, functioning much like a "home" key if you will. It brings you back to the default tool (giving back the "standard behavior" of the mouse in an image editor), which is helpful if you're completing a task using a different tool and want to quickly switch back to being able to freely select content in Illustrator.
If you would like to learn more about the Selection Tool, you can find additional information here.
#2 - Brush Tool
Press
B
to select
#3 - Toggle UI Appearance
Press
tab
to show/hide outer UI
Depending on how you work, you may want to see the other UI elements such as the Toolbar and panels for Layers, Properties, Transform, etc.
While you can close individual panels or change the Screen Mode, if you would like to quickly toggle between showing and hiding these elements all at once, you can press the 'tab' key.
#4 - Eyedropper Tool
Press
I
to select
If you want to quickly be able to grab a color from one element in Illustrator in order to apply it to another, pressing 'i' opens the eyedropper tool.
#5 - Rectangle Tool
Press
M
to select
#6 - Line Tool
Press
\
to select
#7 - Direct Selection Tool
Press
A
to select
#8 - New Document
Press
⌘
+
N
to select
#9 - New Layer
Press
⌘
+
L
to select
#10 - Join Anchor Points
Press
⌘
+
J
to select
Conclusion
These shortcuts are the very tip of the iceberg. There will be more posts about workflow, shortcuts and automation in the future. Keep your eye out for future posts about keyboard shortcuts and other tutorials.
