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Affinity Layout Studio Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac

Keyboard shortcuts for Affinity Layout Studio on Mac. Covers text frames, master pages, section management, and styles for layout and print work on macOS.
Key label style

Layout Studio tools

Color Picker Tool
I
Fill Tool
G
Move Tool
V
Node Tool
A
Pen Tool
P
Picture Frame tools cycle (Picture Frame Rectangle, Picture Frame Ellipse)
K
Shape tools cycle (Rectangle, Ellipse, and Rounded Rectangle)
U
Text tools cycle (Artistic, Frame Text, Table)
T
Transparency Tool
Y
Vector Flood Fill Tool
R
View Tool
H
Zoom Tool
Z

Page control

Add Page
Cmd+Shift+Pg Dn
Previous Page
Cmd+Pg Up
or
Cmd+Fn+Up
Next Page
Cmd+Pg Dn
or
Cmd+Fn+Down

Layout operations

Convert to Picture Frame
Shift+P
Edit Detached (Master Page)
Cmd+Shift+D

Text: General

Spelling Options
Cmd+Shift+;

Text: Navigation and Selection

Open Find and Replace panel
Cmd+F
Move left by one character
Left
Move right by one character
Right
Move to start of word
Cmd+Left
Move to end of word
Cmd+Right
Move to start of line
Fn+Left
Move to end of line
Fn+Right
Move to start of text frame/story
Cmd+Fn+Left
Move to end of text frame/story
Cmd+Fn+Right
Move to start of current paragraph
Cmd+Up
Move to start of next paragraph
Cmd+Down

Text: Deleting

Delete character to left
Del
Delete character to right
Fn+Del
Delete to start of word
Opt+Del
Delete to end of word
Opt+Fn+Del
Delete to start of line
Cmd+Del

Text: Formatting

Bold
Cmd+B
Font size: Bigger
Cmd+Shift+.
Font size: Precise Bigger
Cmd+Opt+Shift+.
Font size: Smaller
Cmd+Shift+,
Font size: Precise Smaller
Cmd+Opt+Shift+,
Italic
Cmd+I
List level: Decrease
Ctrl+Shift+[
List level: Increase
Ctrl+Shift+]
Open Character panel
Cmd+T
Superscript
Cmd+Ctrl+=
Subscript
Cmd+Ctrl+-
Toggle Insert Inside
Shift+I
Underline
Cmd+U

Text: Alignment

Align Left
Cmd+Opt+L
Align Center
Cmd+Opt+C
Align Right
Cmd+Opt+R
Justify Left
Cmd+Opt+Shift+\

Text: Typography and Typesetting

Baseline: Raise
Opt+Shift+Up
Baseline: Lower
Opt+Shift+Down
Kerning/Tracking: Loosen (10‰)
Opt+Right
Kerning/Tracking: Loosen More (50‰)
Cmd+Opt+Right
Kerning/Tracking: Tighten (10‰)
Opt+Left
Kerning/Tracking: Tighten More (50‰)
Cmd+Opt+Left
Leading: Decrease
Opt+Up
Leading: Increase
Opt+Down

Text: Special characters

Em Dash
Opt+-
En Dash
Opt+Shift+-
Indent to Here
Cmd+\
Insert a tab in table cell
Opt+Shift+Tab
Insert index mark
Cmd+Opt+Shift+[
Line Break
Shift+Return
Non-Breaking Hyphen
Cmd+Opt+-
Non-Breaking Space
Opt+Space
Right Indent Tab
Shift+Tab
Soft Hyphen
Cmd+Shift+-
Toggle Unicode
Ctrl+U

Intro

The Layout studio is Affinity's page-layout and publishing environment, formerly the standalone app Affinity Publisher. Since the 2025 relaunch it is one of three studios inside a single free Affinity app. On Mac it uses Command (⌘) as its primary modifier, and the layout workflow (placing frames, navigating pages, applying styles) follows the same convention as InDesign on Mac.

Mac-specific shortcut notes

One app, three studios. Affinity is a single application with Layout, Vector, and Pixel studios. Switch to the Layout studio for multi-page layout and print production. There is no separate Publisher app to launch.

Place. Cmd+D opens the Place dialog to import images, graphics, and text files, the same shortcut as InDesign on Mac.

Page navigation. Moving between pages and spreads, jumping to the first or last page, and navigating to specific page numbers.

Master pages. Switching to the master pages view and back to the document layout, and applying master pages to document pages by keyboard.

Paragraph styles. Applying named paragraph styles by keyboard is the most-used style shortcut in layout work. The assignments are configurable and covered in the table above.

Text frame threading. Linking and unlinking text frames so text flows between them.

Editing pixel or vector content in place. Because the studios are now in one app, you can switch to the Pixel or Vector studio to edit an embedded image or vector object without leaving the document, replacing the old Studio Link step.

Object and frame management. Cmd+G groups and Cmd+Shift+G ungroups. Stacking order via Cmd+[ and Cmd+]. Fitting content to frame or frame to content.

Printable PDF

The Layout studio shortcut list for macOS is available as a printable PDF. The Place shortcut, page navigation, and paragraph style application are the most useful for production work.

FAQ

Need more than shortcuts?
Visit the Affinity Layout Studio app page for an overview and helpful links.

Want to suggest a new app, report a bug, or get help? Email us at info@hkeys.app.

For anything else or just a quick hello, write to us at info@hkeys.app.