Complete Affinity Designer keyboard shortcuts reference — 161 shortcuts across 11 categories. Quick reference cheat sheet for Windows.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + . | Set Selection Box |
| X | Switch between Stroke/Fill colours |
| Shift + X | Swap Stroke/Fill colours |
| D | Set default Stroke/Fill colours |
| / | Set No fill on Stroke/Fill |
| Alt + Backspace | Fill with Foreground Colour |
| Ctrl + Backspace | Fill with Background Colour |
| ; | Toggle Snapping |
| Backspace | Delete a node retaining curve geometry |
| Escape | Cancel a sizing, moving, or creating operation |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + N | New Document |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N | New from Clipboard |
| Ctrl + O | Open Document |
| Ctrl + W | Close Document |
| Ctrl + Alt + W | Close All Documents |
| Ctrl + Tab | Switch Document/View |
| Ctrl + S | Save |
| Ctrl + Shift + S | Save As |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S | Export |
| Ctrl + Shift + P | Document Setup |
| Ctrl + P |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| V | Move Tool |
| A | Node Tool |
| F | Point Transform Tool |
| O | Contour Tool |
| C | Corner Tool |
| P | Pen Tool |
| N | Pencil Tool |
| W | Stroke Width Tool |
| K | Knife Tool |
| B | Vector Brush Tool |
| G | Gradient Tool |
| Y | Transparency Tool |
| R | Vector Flood Fill Tool |
| M | Rectangle, Ellipse and Rounded Rectangle cycle |
| S | Shape Builder Tool |
| T | Artistic and Frame text tools cycle |
| I | Colour Picker Tool |
| H | View Tool |
| Z | Zoom Tool |
| L | Freehand Selection Tool |
| E | Erase Brush Tool |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + Shift + Z | Redo |
| Ctrl + Shift + V | Paste Style |
| Alt + Shift + V | Paste FX |
| Ctrl + Alt + V | Paste Inside |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + V | Paste without Format |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + G | Group |
| Ctrl + Shift + G | Ungroup |
| Ctrl + J | Duplicate |
| Ctrl + Shift + ] | Move to Front |
| Ctrl + ] | Move Forward One |
| Ctrl + Shift + [ | Move to Back |
| Ctrl + [ | Move Back One |
| Ctrl + Alt + G | Move Inside |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + G | Move Outside |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + H | Show All |
| Ctrl + Shift + A | Select All on Current Layer |
| Ctrl + L | Lock |
| Ctrl + Shift + L | Unlock |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + L | Unlock All |
| Ctrl + Shift + N | New Pixel Layer |
| Ctrl + Shift + R | Rename Layer |
| Ctrl + Enter | Convert to Curves |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + T | Show Character panel |
| Ctrl + Shift + T | Show Typography panel |
| Ctrl + Shift + ; | Spelling Options |
| Left | Move insertion point one character left |
| Right | Move insertion point one character right |
| Ctrl + Left | Move insertion point to start of word |
| Ctrl + Right | Move insertion point to end of word |
| Home | Move insertion point to start of line |
| End | Move insertion point to end of line |
| Ctrl + Home | Move insertion point to start of text frame |
| Ctrl + End | Move insertion point to end of text frame |
| Ctrl + Up | Move insertion point to start of current paragraph |
| Ctrl + Down | Move insertion point to start of next paragraph |
| Delete | Delete character to right of insertion point |
| Ctrl + Delete | Delete from insertion point to end of word |
| Ctrl + > | Bigger text |
| Ctrl + < | Smaller text |
| Ctrl + Alt + > | Precise bigger text |
| Ctrl + Alt + < | Precise smaller text |
| Ctrl + B | Bold |
| Ctrl + I | Italic |
| Ctrl + U | Underline |
| Ctrl + Shift + = | Superscript |
| Ctrl + Alt + - | Subscript |
| Ctrl + Alt + L | Align Left |
| Ctrl + Alt + C | Align Centre |
| Ctrl + Alt + R | Align Right |
| Alt + Left | Tighten spacing |
| Alt + Right | Loosen spacing |
| Alt + Shift + Left | Tighten spacing more |
| Alt + Shift + Right | Loosen spacing more |
| Alt + Shift + Up | Raise Baseline |
| Alt + Shift + Down | Lower Baseline |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Up | Precise Raise Baseline |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Down | Precise Lower Baseline |
| Alt + Down | Increase Paragraph Leading |
| Alt + Up | Decrease Paragraph Leading |
| Ctrl + Alt + Down | Precise Increase Paragraph Leading |
| Ctrl + Alt + Up | Precise Decrease Paragraph Leading |
| Shift + Enter | Line Break |
| Alt + Space | Non-Breaking Space |
| Ctrl + Shift + - | Soft Hyphen |
| Alt + - | En Dash |
| Alt + Shift + - | Em Dash |
| Alt + U | Toggle Unicode |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R | Reset document view rotation |
| Ctrl + = | Zoom In |
| Ctrl + - | Zoom Out |
| Ctrl + 2 | Zoom to 200% |
| Ctrl + 3 | Zoom to 400% |
| Ctrl + 4 | Zoom to 800% |
| Ctrl + 8 | Zoom to Actual Size |
| Ctrl + 9 | Zoom to Pixel Size |
| Space | Hot key panning |
| Ctrl + R | Show Rulers |
| Ctrl + ; | Show Guides |
| Ctrl + ' | Show Grid |
| ' | Grid Plane cycle |
| Ctrl + Alt + Y | Pixel view mode |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Y | Pixel Retina view mode |
| Ctrl + Y | Last used wireframe mode toggle |
| , | Toggle Split View |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + A | Select All |
| Ctrl + D | Deselect |
| Ctrl + Shift + I | Invert Pixel Selection |
| Ctrl + Alt + ] | Select Next |
| Ctrl + Alt + [ | Select Previous |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Shift + H | Show/Hide Studio |
| Ctrl + Alt + T | Show/Hide Toolbar |
| Tab | Toggle UI |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Shift + = | Next Blend Mode |
| Shift + - | Previous Blend Mode |
| Alt + Shift + N | Normal |
| Alt + Shift + K | Darken |
| Alt + Shift + M | Multiply |
| Alt + Shift + B | Colour Burn |
| Alt + Shift + A | Linear Burn |
| Alt + Shift + G | Lighten |
| Alt + Shift + S | Screen |
| Alt + Shift + D | Colour Dodge |
| Alt + Shift + W | Add |
| Alt + Shift + O | Overlay |
| Alt + Shift + F | Soft Light |
| Alt + Shift + H | Hard Light |
| Alt + Shift + J | Linear Light |
| Alt + Shift + Z | Pin Light |
| Alt + Shift + L | Hard Mix |
| Alt + Shift + E | Difference |
| Alt + Shift + X | Exclusion |
| Alt + Shift + U | Hue |
| Alt + Shift + T | Saturation |
| Alt + Shift + C | Colour |
| Alt + Shift + Y | Luminosity |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + , | Settings |
| Ctrl + M | Curves adjustment |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B | Black and White adjustment |
Open your assistant with this page preloaded as the source — great for follow-up questions like "which of these work in other apps?"