Affinity Designer Quick Dev Reference

A visual cheat-sheet for the 108 keyboard shortcuts found in Affinity Designer.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Designer Persona

Esc — Cancel operation

F1 — Help

0-9 — Change opacity

Tab — Toggle UI

T — Cycle text tools

Y — Transparency tool

I — Color picker tool

P — Pen tool

[ — Decrease brush size

] — Increase brush size

A — Node tool

F — Point transform tool

G — Fill tool

H — View tool

; — Toggle snapping

\ — Clip to canvas

Z — Zoom tool

X — Toggle active selector

C — Corner tool

V — Move tool

B — Vector brush tool

N — Pencil tool

M — Cycle shape tool

, — Cycle split view

. — Reset selection box

/ — Set fill or stroke to none

Ctrl 1 — Zoom to 100%

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

Ctrl 0 — Zoom to fit

Ctrl - — Zoom out

Ctrl = — Zoom in

Ctrl Tab — Switch view

Ctrl W — Close

Ctrl R — Rulers

Ctrl T — Character

Ctrl Y — Redo

Ctrl O — Open

Ctrl P — Print

Ctrl [ — Back one

Ctrl ] — Forward one

Ctrl Enter — Convert to curves

Ctrl A — Select all

Ctrl S — Save

Ctrl G — Group

Ctrl J — Duplicate

Ctrl L — Lock

Ctrl ; — Show guides

Ctrl ' — Show grid

Ctrl Z — Undo

Ctrl X — Cut

Ctrl C — Copy

Ctrl V — Paste

Ctrl N — New

Ctrl M — Curves

Ctrl , — Preferences

Space — Hold for view tool

Pixel Persona

W — Selection brush

E — Erase brush

I — Color picker tool

O — Cycle dodge or burn brushes

[ — Decrease brush size

] — Increase brush size

G — Flood fill tool

L — Freehand selection tool

X — Toggle active selector

V — Move tool

B — Cycle brush or pixel tools

M — Cycle marquees

, — Cycle split view

. — Reset selection box

Modifiers and Layer Control

Alt — Drawing and painting - temporarily switches to the color picker tool

Shift — Freehand selection tools - connects clicked points with straight lines

Shift — Reverses aspect ratio constraint on scaling

Ctrl — Scales from the center of selection

Alt — Ignores snapping during an operation

Ctrl — Geometric shapes - moves red handles symmetrically

Shift — Path text - maintains distance between red handles

Ctrl — Path text - moves red handles symmetrically

Shift — Pixel brush painting - draws straight line connecting two strokes

Shift — Pixel selections - constrains marquee to square or circle

Ctrl — Pixel selection - moves underlying layer rather than selection

Alt — Pixel selection - removes from selection

Ctrl — Pixel tool - erases from current layer or projects

Shift — Rotating - constrains rotations to 15 degree intervals

Shift — Selecting - scales multiple objects and layers

Alt — Selecting - selects object or layer behind current selection

Ctrl — Shearing - mirrors shear around center of object

Shift — Vector drawing tools - constrains handle angles to 15 degrees

Alt — Vector drawing tools - sets node to sharp for creating cusps

Ctrl — Vector drawing tools - temporarily switches to node editing from pen

Advanced Text

Ctrl T — Character panel

Ctrl Shift T — Typography dialog

Ctrl B — Bold

Ctrl I — Italic

Ctrl U — Underline

Ctrl Alt L — Align left

Ctrl Alt C — Align center

Ctrl Alt R — Align right

Alt Shift Left — Tighten spacing more

Alt Shift Right — Loosen spacing more

Ctrl Alt Shift Up — Precise raise baseline

Ctrl Alt Shift Down — Precise lower baseline

Ctrl Alt Down — Precise increase leading

Ctrl Alt Up — Precise decrease leading