Photopea Keyboard Shortcuts
Photopea's entire pitch is 'Photoshop, but it runs in a browser tab for free,' and its shortcut set follows that pitch closely — Photopea deliberately mirrors Photoshop's tool shortcuts (V for Move, M for Marquee, B for Brush) rather than inventing its own scheme, since compatibility with existing Photoshop muscle memory is a core part of the product's appeal. Because it runs in a browser rather than as a native app, a handful of shortcuts behave differently than they would in desktop Photoshop specifically due to browser-level conflicts — Ctrl+W for close, for instance, competes with the browser's own tab-close shortcut and can behave inconsistently depending on which browser and OS you're using. Layer and selection shortcuts transfer over almost one-to-one, which is deliberate since a huge share of Photopea's user base is people opening an existing .psd file who already know Photoshop's shortcuts and don't want to relearn anything just because the tool is now running in a tab instead of installed locally. Freelance designers and students who need Photoshop-level editing occasionally but can't justify a Creative Cloud subscription are Photopea's core audience, and because so many of them arrive already fluent in Photoshop from a previous job, school course, or trial period, the deliberate one-to-one shortcut compatibility is arguably a bigger draw than any feature the app offers on its own merits — it's specifically designed to feel like nothing changed except where the software happens to be running.
Tool Switching
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move tool | V | V | Switches to the Move tool for repositioning layers and selections, using the identical single-letter binding Photoshop uses for the same tool. |
| Rectangular Marquee tool | M | M | Switches to the rectangular selection tool, matching Photoshop's shortcut exactly, part of Photopea's deliberate compatibility with existing Photoshop muscle memory. |
| Brush tool | B | B | Activates the Brush tool, ready for freehand strokes on whatever layer or layer mask is currently active. |
Layers
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| New layer | Ctrl+Shift+N | Cmd+Shift+N | Creates a new empty layer above the currently selected one, opening a naming dialog first just as it does in desktop Photoshop. |
| Duplicate layer | Ctrl+J | Cmd+J | Duplicates the currently selected layer directly above itself in the layer stack, without opening a dialog first. |
| Merge layer down | Ctrl+E | Cmd+E | Merges the selected layer into the one directly beneath it in the stack, flattening the two into one. |
| Free Transform | Ctrl+T | Cmd+T | Activates Free Transform on the selected layer or selection, letting you scale, rotate, and skew with on-canvas handles, identical in behavior to Photoshop's Free Transform. |
Selection View
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deselect | Ctrl+D | Cmd+D | Clears the current active selection, matching Photoshop's binding precisely. |
| Fit image on screen | Ctrl+0 | Cmd+0 | Zooms the canvas to fit the entire image within the visible window, useful after zooming in for detail work. |
| Undo | Ctrl+Z | Cmd+Z | Reverts the most recent action, matching Photoshop's binding and supporting a comparably deep multi-step undo history. |
| Invert selection | Ctrl+Shift+I | Cmd+Shift+I | Turns the current selection inside out — previously excluded pixels become the new selection and previously included ones fall outside it — bound to the identical key combination Photoshop uses for the same command. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Photopea open real .psd files, or does it just approximate the format?
Photopea reads and writes native .psd files including layers, layer masks, adjustment layers, and blend modes with substantial fidelity, which is part of why it's genuinely useful for opening Photoshop files without owning a Photoshop license, though extremely advanced or plugin-dependent Photoshop features may not translate perfectly.
Why does Ctrl+W sometimes close my browser tab instead of the image in Photopea?
Ctrl+W is reserved by most browsers as the tab-close shortcut at a level above what a web page can override, so depending on the browser and whether Photopea's page currently has full keyboard focus, the browser can intercept it before Photopea's own close-document handler receives it — a known friction point of running a Photoshop-like app inside a browser tab rather than as a native application.
Is Photopea completely free, or are some features locked behind a paywall?
The core editor is free to use with ads, including opening, editing, and exporting most file formats; Photopea offers an optional paid subscription primarily to remove ads and add a few convenience features, but the fundamental editing capability isn't gated behind payment the way some 'freemium' creative tools are.
Can Photopea open Illustrator (.ai) or Sketch files in addition to .psd?
Yes — Photopea supports opening several other design file formats beyond Photoshop's native format, including .ai, .xd, and .sketch to varying degrees of fidelity, positioning it as a broader universal design-file viewer and lightweight editor rather than strictly a Photoshop-file-only tool, though .psd support remains the most complete and reliable of the group.
Does Photopea save files back to my computer, or only to some cloud storage?
Photopea can save/export directly to your local computer's downloads through the browser's normal file-save mechanism, as well as optionally to connected cloud storage accounts like Google Drive or Dropbox if you choose to link them, giving flexibility depending on where you want your edited files to end up.
Why do some Photoshop plugins or extensions not work in Photopea even though the core shortcuts match?
Photopea reimplements Photoshop-like functionality independently rather than running actual Photoshop code, so third-party plugins built specifically for Photoshop's plugin architecture don't have a direct equivalent or compatibility path into Photopea — the shortcut and interface similarity is a deliberate design choice, but the underlying software is a completely separate codebase built from scratch.
Does Photopea support keyboard shortcuts for adjusting brush size like Photoshop's bracket keys?
Yes — the left and right square bracket keys ([ and ]) decrease and increase brush size respectively while a brush-based tool is active, mirroring Photoshop's identical convention exactly, which is a small but telling detail of how thoroughly Photopea replicates Photoshop-specific muscle memory rather than just the broad strokes of tool switching and layer management.
Is there a limit to file size or image dimensions when working in Photopea compared to desktop Photoshop?
Because Photopea runs entirely within your browser using your device's own memory and processing power rather than a locally installed native application optimized for large-file handling, extremely large or high-resolution files can perform noticeably slower or hit practical memory limits sooner than the same file would in desktop Photoshop, particularly on lower-powered devices or when many layers are involved.
Does Photopea have a shortcut for converting a Smart Object back into editable layers in the same way Photoshop does?
Yes — right-clicking a Smart Object layer and choosing 'Convert to Layers' rasterizes it back into its editable component layers, mirroring Photoshop's identical command and keeping compatibility with PSD files that use Smart Objects when moving files between the two applications.