Blender Keyboard Shortcuts

Understanding Blender's modal editing system before looking at the shortcut table will make it much less confusing:

G — Grab/Move. Pressing G enters grab mode. The selection moves with your mouse. Press X, Y, or Z to constrain movement to that axis. Press a number to move by an exact distance. Left-click or Enter to confirm. Right-click or Escape to cancel.

R — Rotate. Same modal pattern. Press R, then optionally an axis (X/Y/Z) and a number for exact rotation. Confirm or cancel.

S — Scale. Same modal pattern. Press S, then optionally an axis and a number for exact scaling.

This system applies in both Object mode (transforming whole objects) and Edit mode (transforming vertices, edges, or faces).

Mac Same shortcut set as Windows for most operations. Blender uses Command on Mac for a few modifier-based shortcuts. Important: most MacBook keyboards don't have a numpad — see the Mac platform page for the "Emulate Numpad" setting.

Windows Full shortcut set with physical numpad support. Numpad keys provide one-press viewport angle switching and camera positioning.

Object and edit mode shortcuts. G/R/S for transform. A for select all/deselect. Shift+A for the add menu (insert new objects). Tab to toggle between Object and Edit mode.

Viewport navigation. Numpad 1/3/7 for front/side/top views. Numpad 5 for perspective/orthographic toggle. Numpad 0 for camera view. Numpad . (period) to zoom to selection.

Edit mode mesh operations. E for extrude. I for inset faces. Ctrl+R for loop cut. 1/2/3 on the number row to switch between vertex, edge, and face select modes.

Sculpt mode. Brush size, strength, and mode switching shortcuts.

Render. F12 starts a full render. F11 opens the last render result.

A printable PDF of Blender shortcuts is available for each platform. The modal system (G/R/S with axis constraints) and viewport numpad shortcuts are the most distinctive sections — worth printing during the early stages of learning Blender.

Adobe Photoshop, Figma, VS Code, Adobe Illustrator, and Canva sit near Blender because 3D work often connects visual editing, design handoff, scripting, vector work, and presentation assets. Photoshop can support texture and image editing, Figma can sit in interface or presentation workflows, VS Code is useful for scripting and development work around Blender, Illustrator connects to vector artwork, and Canva can support quick visual assembly for shared materials. These apps are related by workflow and audience, not because every Blender project needs all of them.

What is Blender's modal editing system?

In Blender, G, R, and S activate "modal" transform operations. Pressing G enters grab mode — the selected objects follow the mouse until you confirm (click or Enter) or cancel (right-click or Escape). Pressing X, Y, or Z after G/R/S constrains the operation to that world axis. Pressing a number after the axis applies an exact value. This modal system is the core interaction pattern for 3D transforms in Blender.

Does Blender have keyboard shortcuts for Linux?

HKeys does not currently have a Linux platform page for Blender. The Mac and Windows pages cover the shortcut set — most shortcuts are identical on Linux since they don't depend on OS-level modifiers.

What is F12 in Blender?

F12 starts a full render in Blender — rendering the scene through the active camera at the configured output settings. F11 opens the last rendered image without re-rendering.

This section lists official sources and documentation for Blender. Use these references to verify shortcut behavior instead of relying on old screenshots, memory, or someone else’s setup. They are especially helpful when comparing Windows and macOS behavior, where the same 3D workflow can depend on different keyboard habits.

Official references are useful for checking platform differences, keyboard layout issues, browser conflicts, operating system shortcut conflicts, and app-version differences. A shortcut can be correct in one setup and still feel wrong because the OS, keyboard layout, or active context gets in the way. When something behaves differently than expected, verify it against the official source before updating notes, sharing a cheat sheet, or teaching the workflow to someone else.