Learning Illustrator shortcuts is an excellent way to improve the efficiency of your workflow. Rather than provide a long list of all the shortcuts, I have picked out a useful selection that you can learn as a starting point.
Try to practice with a couple of these every week, and you’ll be knocking out your vector graphics in no time!
For further reading, I have written companion posts for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, and macOS.
General Tricks
| Action | Mac | Win |
|---|---|---|
| Paste in Front | Cmd + F | Ctrl + F |
| Paste at Back | Cmd + B | Ctrl + B |
| Paste onto all Artboards | Option + Shift + Cmd + V | Alt + Shift + Ctrl + V |
| Place file | Shift + Cmd + P | Shift + Ctrl + P |
| Temp. select Hand Tool | Spacebar | Spacebar |
| Cycle through open documents | Cmd + Tab | Ctrl + Tab |
| Duplicate | Hold Option + Drag | Hold Alt + drag |
Tools
| Action | Mac | Win |
|---|---|---|
| Artboard | Shift + O | Shift + O |
| Selection | V | V |
| Direct Selection | A | A |
| Pen | P | P |
| Blob Brush | Shift + B | Shift + B |
| Increase/Decrease Blob size | ] / [ | ] / [ |
| Add Anchor Point | + | + |
| Delete Anchor Point | – | – |
| Type | T | T |
| Line | \ | \ |
| Rectangle | M | M |
| Ellipse | L | L |
| Paintbrush | B | B |
| Pencil | N | N |
| Rotate | R | R |
| Scale | S | S |
| Gradient | G | G |
| Eyedropper | I | I |
| Blend | W | W |
| Hand | H | H |
| Zoom | Z | Z |
Working with Guides
| Action | Mac | Win |
|---|---|---|
| Hide Guides | Cmd + ; | Ctrl + ; |
| Lock Guides | Option + Cmd + ; | Alt + Ctrl + ; |
| Make Guides | Cmd + 5 | Ctrl + 5 |
| Release Guides | Option + Cmd + 5 | Alt + Ctrl + 5 |
| Show Grid | Cmd + ‘ | Ctrl + ‘ |
| Snap to Grid | Shift + Cmd + ‘ | Shift + Ctrl + ‘ |
| Toggle Smart Guides | Cmd + U | Ctrl + U |
Working with Objects
| Action | Mac | Win |
|---|---|---|
| Select all | Cmd + A | Ctrl + A |
| Select all in active artboard | Cmd + Option + A | Ctrl + Alt + A |
| Group | Cmd + G | Ctrl + G |
| Ungroup | Shift + Cmd + G | Shift + Ctrl + G |
| Lock | Cmd + 2 | Ctrl + 2 |
| Unlock | Option + Cmd + 2 | Alt + Ctrl + 2 |
| Move selection x1 unit | Arrow keys | Arrow keys |
| Move selection x10 units | Shift + Arrow keys | Shift + Arrow keys |
| Shuffle object forward | Cmd + ] | Ctrl + ] |
| Shuffle object back | Cmd + [ | Ctrl + [ |
| Move to front | Shift + Cmd + ] | Shift + Ctrl + ] |
| Move to back | Shift + Cmd + [ | Shift + Ctrl + [ |
Working with Type
| Action | Mac | Win |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | Shift + Cmd + B | Shift + Ctrl + B |
| Italic | Shift + Cmd + I | Shift + Ctrl + I |
