Affinity Photo Keyboard Shortcuts
Every Affinity Photo shortcut, sorted by the job in hand
Affinity Photo puts several tools behind one key, and pressing that key again cycles through them. It is quick once you know it and baffling until you do, which is why the Tools section here groups them the same way.
Affinity Photo Keyboard Shortcuts is a free 12-page PDF quick reference with 239 shortcuts in 13 sections. Where a key is the same on a Mac and on Windows it spans both columns, so the differences stand out.
These are the Affinity Photo 2 defaults, taken from Serif's own shortcut list. Canva has not yet published a list for the new unified Affinity app, so a few keys may differ there. Every shortcut can be checked or changed under Settings > Shortcuts.
What the reference covers
Files, editing, undo and fills
Tools in the Photo Persona, and the Develop, Liquify and Export personas
Layers, selections and masks
Adjustments, filters and blend modes
View, workspace, painting and brushes
Moving and transforming, vectors and nodes
Text formatting and moving through text
Who it is for
These Affinity Photo keyboard shortcuts are for photographers who edit in Affinity Photo 2, or who have moved across from Photoshop and keep reaching for keys that do something else. Many of the single letters match Photoshop, but enough of them differ to trip up anyone with years of Photoshop habits. Seeing the Mac and Windows keys side by side also helps if you edit on a laptop and a desktop that run different systems.
The PDF is searchable, so Cmd+F on a Mac or Ctrl+F on Windows finds a shortcut by name. Print it and keep it beside the keyboard, or keep it open on a second screen while you work. Each section starts from the job rather than the menu, so the keys you use together sit together on the page.
The contents page and the opening section of the Affinity Photo reference
Find out more about the software on Affinity's photo editing page.
Download it free, print it on A4, and keep it beside the keyboard.
