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Affinity Pixel Studio Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac

Keyboard shortcuts for Affinity Pixel Studio on Mac. Covers tool switching, layer controls, tone adjustments, and mask editing on macOS.
Key label style

Pixel Studio tools

Clone Brush Tool
S
Color Picker Tool
I
Color Replacement Brush Tool
R
Crop Tool
C
Erase Tools cycle (Erase Brush, Background Erase Brush, Flood Erase)
E
Fill Tools cycle (Fill, Flood Fill)
G
Freehand Selection Tool
L
Healing Tools cycle (Inpainting Brush, Healing Brush, Blemish Removal, Patch, Red Eye Removal)
J
Marquee Selection Tools cycle (Rectangular, Elliptical, Column, Row)
M
Move Tool
V
Node Tool
A
Paint Brush Tool
B
Pen Tool
P
Pixel Tool
Y
Pixel Selection Tools cycle (Selection Brush, Flood Select)
W
Shape tools cycle (Rectangle, Ellipse, and Rounded Rectangle)
U
Text tools cycle (Artistic, Frame Text)
T
Tonal Adjustment Brush Tools cycle (Burn Brush, Dodge Brush, Sponge Brush)
O
View Tool
H
Zoom Tool
Z

Pixel selection

Invert Pixel Selection
Cmd+Shift+I
Pixel selection from layer
Cmd+ClickLayers panel thumbnail
Pixel selection from layer intensity
Cmd+Opt+Shift+ClickLayers panel thumbnail
Add to pixel selection
Shift+Drag
with the Marquee or Freehand Selection tool
Remove from pixel selection
Opt+Drag
with the Marquee or Freehand Selection tool
Feather pixel selection
Shift+F6
Refine Edges of pixel selection
Cmd+Opt+R
Polygon selection (Freehand Selection Tool only)
Cmd+Shift+Clickon page
Quick Mask
Q

Pixel layer operations

Fade (operation name)
Cmd+Shift+F
Toggle between Frequency Separation layers
F
Edit Live Projection
Cmd+Ctrl+P

Painting

Paint a brush stroke along a straight line
Click,Shift+Click
Pick up a new brush color
Opt+Drag
Toggle between standard brush cursor and crosshair cursor
CapsLock
Ignore brush size and associated tool on the Brushes panel
Opt+Click
Ignore the associated tool on the Brushes panel
Opt+Shift+Click
Temporarily switch to the Move Tool
Cmd+Drag
Set selected brush tool's opacity
<0-9>
Set brush width (decrease/increase)
[]
Set brush hardness (decrease/increase in 10% steps)
Shift+[]
Set brush flow
Shift+<0-9>
Set brush strength
<0-9>
with the Smudge Brush tool
Rotate brush nozzle counter-clockwise/clockwise
LeftRight
Cycle brush properties (width/hardness, shape/spacing, and rotation)
Ctrl+Opt+Click
Set nozzle width, shape, or rotation
Ctrl+Opt+Dragleft or right
Set nozzle hardness or spacing
Ctrl+Opt+Dragup or down

Masking in Liquify Studio

Mask All
Cmd+A
Clear Mask
Cmd+D
Invert Mask
Cmd+I

Other

Live Stack
Cmd+Opt+Shift+O

Slice Studio tools

Slice Tool
S
Slice Selection Tool
L

Liquify tools

Liquify Freeze Tool
F
Liquify Hand Tool
H
Liquify Mesh Clone Tool
C
Liquify Pinch Tool
U
Liquify Punch Tool
N
Liquify Push Forward Tool
P
Liquify Push Left Tool
L
Liquify Reconstruct Tool
R
Liquify Thaw Tool
W
Liquify Turbulence Tool
B
Liquify Twirl Tool
T
Liquify Zoom Tool
Z

Develop tools

Blemish Removal Tool
L
Crop Tool
C
Mask Erase Tool
E
Mask Gradient Tool
G
Mask Paint Tool
B
Red Eye Removal Tool
R
White Balance Tool
W

Tone Mapping tools

Mask Erase Tool
E
Mask Gradient Tool
G
Mask Paint Tool
B

Panorama tools

Add To Source Image Mask Tool
L
Crop Tool
C
Erase From Source Image Mask Tool
U
Hand Tool
H
Transform Source Image Tool
A

Intro

The Pixel studio is Affinity's photo-editing and raster environment, formerly the standalone app Affinity Photo. 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 single-key tools activate without a modifier, the same convention as Photoshop on Mac.

Mac-specific shortcut notes

One app, three studios. Affinity is a single application with Pixel, Vector, and Layout studios. Switch to the Pixel studio for image editing, compositing, and retouching. There is no separate Photo app to launch.

Single-key tools. Press the key to activate: move tool, selection tools (marquee, lasso, freehand), brush, eraser, crop, clone, text, eyedropper, zoom, and hand tool. The complete single-key list is in the table above.

Layer operations. Cmd+J duplicates the current layer (matching Photoshop), Cmd+E merges down, Cmd+G groups, and Cmd+Shift+G ungroups.

Transform. Cmd+T enters transform mode for the current layer, the same as Photoshop.

Selections. Cmd+D deselects, Cmd+Shift+I inverts the selection, and Cmd+A selects all.

Masks. Creating a mask from a selection and applying or inverting masks each have Command-based shortcuts.

RAW and retouching. The Pixel studio includes RAW develop and liquify tooling for photo work, reached from within the studio.

Printable PDF

The Pixel studio shortcut list for macOS is available as a printable PDF. The single-key tools and layer operations are the most useful to keep nearby when learning the editing workflow.

FAQ

Need more than shortcuts?
Visit the Affinity Pixel 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.