Software & Apps Design The 5 Most Useful GIMP Keyboard Shortcuts Speed up your work with these tips by Ian Pullen Writer Ian Pullen is a former Lifewire writer and an experienced graphic designer and web developer with a strong interest in free and open-source graphics software. our editorial process LinkedIn Ian Pullen Updated on September 25, 2020 Tweet Share Email The Ultimate Guide to Keyboard Shortcuts The Ultimate Guide to Keyboard Shortcuts Introduction Windows Timesavers The Best Windows 10 Keyboard Shortcuts Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Better Productivity How to Use the Shortcut Alt + Underline Shortcut to Create New Folders Essential Shortcuts for iTunes Mac, iOS & iPad Quick Tricks The Best Mac Shortcuts Keyboard Shortcuts for Finder Mac Startup Keyboard Shortcuts 18 Shortcuts for Apple's iOS Shortcuts App iPad Keyboard Tips and Smart Keyboard Shortcuts Android & iPhone Shortcuts The Best Android Shortcuts You Should Be Using Create and Use iPhone X Shortcuts Email Shortcuts The 30 Best Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts for 2020 How to Use Yahoo Mail Keyboard Shortcuts The Complete Apple Mail Shortcut List Shortcuts in iOS Mail Delete Shortcut Keys for Popular Email Programs How to Use Outlook.com Keyboard Shortcuts Create Text Snippets With Shortcuts in Mac OS X Mail Online & Browser Shortcuts Top 36 Shortcuts for Edge and IE 11 Keyboard Shortcuts: Google Chrome for Windows Create Web Page Shortcuts in Chrome for Windows Control Safari Windows With Keyboard Shortcuts Shortcuts for Safari Toolbars Shortcuts for Safari on OS X & Sierra Excel Shortcuts The 23 Best Excel Shortcuts Shortcut Excel's Fill Down Command Shortcut the Current Date/Time Formatting Numbers Adding Worksheets Shortcut to Saving Your Work Creating a Chart MAX Function Shortcut More Office Shortcuts Top 10 Microsoft Word Shortcuts The 5 Best Hidden Word Shortcuts Add Shortcut Keys to AutoText Entries Uppercase Shortcut Key How to Reset Keyboard Shortcuts in Word Shortcut to Speed Up PowerPoint Presentations Other Useful Shortcuts The Best Google Docs Shortcuts 18 Shortcuts for Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon Changing Linux Mint Cinnamon Shortcuts Fedora GNOME Keyboard Shortcuts Maya Keyboard Shortcuts Create or Reassign Keyboard Shortcuts in MS Office Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Photoshop CC Time-Saving Fill Tool Shortcuts in Photoshop The 5 Most Useful GIMP Keyboard Shortcuts How to Use the GIMP Keyboard Shortcut Editor Shortcuts to Type a Tilde Mark GIMP has a large number of useful default keyboard shortcuts that speed up your workflow once you perfect them. You can even set up your own keyboard shortcuts using GIMP's shortcut editor or by making use of GIMP's dynamic keyboard shortcuts. Deselect GIMP offers a strong range of selection tools, but you need to deselect a selection after you've finished working with it. Rather than using the menu's Select > None option to remove the marching ants selection outline, you can press the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+A. This keyboard shortcut does not affect a floating selection. You can either add a new layer to anchor the selection or go Layer > Anchor Layer or Ctrl+H to merge it with the next layer down. Use the Space Bar for Document Panning Using the scroll bars to the right and bottom of the window to pan around the image when you're zoomed in on it can be slow, but there's a quicker way. Hold down the Space Bar and the cursor changes to the Move cursor. You can click the mouse button and drag the image in the window to pan to a different part of the image. Don't forget the Display Navigation palette if you want a better sense of the overall context of the part of the image you're currently working on. This option can be turned off or set to Switch to the Move Tool in the Image Windows section of the GIMP preferences. Zooming In and Out Every GIMP user should get into the habit of using the zoom keyboard shortcuts to speed up the way they work with your images. The zoom shortcuts offer a quick way to zoom and navigate an image without going to the View menu or switching to the Zoom Tool if you have the Display Navigation palette open. Press the + (plus) key to zoom in incrementally.Press the - (hyphen) key to zoom out in increments.Press the 1 key to zoom to 100 percent, where one pixel in your image matches one pixel on your monitor.Press Shift+Ctrl+E to fit the image to the window. Fill Shortcuts If you find that you want to add a solid fill to a layer or a selection, you can do this quickly from the keyboard rather than going to the Edit menu. Press Ctrl+, (comma) to fill with the foreground color.Press Ctrl+. (period) to fill with the background color. Default Colors GIMP sets the foreground color to black and the background color to white by default. Although these are often the two colors you want to use, you can press the D key to reset these colors. You can also swap the foreground and background colors by pressing the X key. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit