Home > Adobe Illustrator > Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts
Illustrator has hundreds of keyboard shortcuts, which will make your experience easier and more efficient, as time goes by. Not all of them will be relevant to you at first, and some of them you may never use at all, so here are a few of the most useful, commonly used ones.
Note - Ctrl represents the Control key on most Windows operating systems.
If you are using an Apple Mac operating system, replace the Ctrl with Cmd
Open a New Document
Ctrl and N
Open an existing Document
Ctrl and O
Save your currently open Document
Ctrl and S
Cut
Ctrl and X
Copy
Ctrl and C
Paste
Ctrl and V
Select All
Ctrl and A
Bring an element forward in the stacking order
Ctrl and ]
Send an element backward in the stacking order
Ctrl and [
Send element to front of the stacking order
Ctrl and Shift and ]
Send element to Back of the stacking order
Ctrl and Shift and [
To clone and element elsewhere onto the canvas
Hold Alt, click the element and drag
To select more than one layer at a time
Hold Shift while clicking each additional layer
Move an Element one pixel at a time
Use the arrow keys ^ v > <
Undo
Hold Ctrl and Z
Redo
Hold Shift and Ctrl and Z
Switch Document Windows
Ctrl and Tab
Your Illustrator workspace can become quite busy when working on multiple files, especially if you are pasting multiple elements and logos from different files into one main project, so being able to switch windows quickly will help.
Zoom in
Ctrl and =
Zoom out
Ctrl and –
Fit to window
Ctrl and 0
Further Illustrator Resources
About Adobe Illustrator
The Basics - Getting Started
Illustrator Interface
Keyboard Shortcuts
Tool by Tool
Using Filters and Effects
Download
Download the full Illustrator Help File as a PDF
