40 Essential Adobe Fresco Shortcuts for Illustrators

Make the most of the painting and drawing program's features with these speedy keyboard shortcuts

When it comes to creating work digitally, many illustrators are looking to mimic the effects of real brushes and canvases. Adobe Fresco is a drawing and painting app that seeks to merge both worlds.

This program offers drawing and painting experiences that feel natural, both for professional illustrators and people simply looking to experiment with different tools. In this post, we walk you through some of the program's key features and compile a list of shortcuts that will allow you to work more quickly and efficiently.

The main features of Adobe Fresco

- It is designed for newer devices, including the iPhone, and digital pens/styluses.

- It offers a collection of vector and raster brushes.

- It includes both Photoshop brushes and brushes created by expert artist Kyle T. Webster.

- It allows you to easily isolate areas of a layer and turn selections into masks, so you can customize your user experience.

- It can be automatically synchronized with the cloud and you can use resources from the Adobe Stock library.

- The creative possibilities it offers are not only limited to illustration, it is also a very popular program amongst lettering artists.

General shortcuts for Adobe Fresco

Before checking out the list below, here's a couple of tips to bear in mind:

- Use Ctrl for Windows, use Command for Mac.
- Use Alt for Windows, use Option for Mac.
- When you see a plus sign (+), it means that you must press several keys at the same time.
- When you see a comma (,) it means that you must press several keys in order.

Undo → Ctrl + Z

Redo → Ctrl + Shift + Z

Deselect → Ctrl + D

Invert selection → Ctrl + Shift + I

Use keys for the application menu

Sync & return to Home → Ctrl + Shift + H

Publish & export → Alt + Shift + S

Quick export → Ctrl + Shift + S

Use keys for the toolbar menu

Pixel brush → P

Live brush → H

Vector brush → V

Switch to last brush → B

Eraser → E

Make current brush an eraser → ~

Transform → Ctrl + T

Lasso → L

Eyedropper → I

Fill → G

Show/hide color picker → F6

Use keys for layers

New layer → Ctrl + N

Clear layer contents → Ctrl + Shift + Delete

Hide / show layer → Ctrl + ,

Lock / unlock layer → Ctrl + L

Select previous layer → Alt + [ (None in Mac)

Select next layer → Alt + ]

Nudge layer by 1 px → Arrow (None in Mac)

Nudge layer by 10 px → Shift + Arrow (None in Mac)

Rotate layer → Shift + Ctrl + Arrow (None in Mac)

Use keys for canvas

Zoom in → Ctrl + + (None in Mac)

Zoom out → Ctrl + - (None in Mac)

Pan → Spacebar (None in Mac)

Rotate canvas → R (None in Mac)

Enter/Exit Full-Screen mode → Shift + F

Flip canvas horizontally → Shift + H

Flip canvas vertically→ Shift + V

Why should I learn to draw digitally?

Nowadays, you no longer have to be an expert in design software to master digital illustration. More and more user-friendly options are emerging, and advances in technology have made it possible for anyone to achieve amazing results with a little practice.

Digital drawing is ideal for:

- Trying out different techniques and options without ruining your work (you can always undo layers!).

- Working professionally and (more easily) making amends in response to feedback from clients.

- Incorporating effects and animations that enhance your work and allow you to experiment.

Whether you're a beginner looking to master the basics or want to take your skills to the next level, check out our digital illustration courses on Domestika.

If you want to discover more techniques and tools and find out more about what Adobe Fresco has to offer, sign up for the course Lettering with Adobe Fresco: Create Tasteful Images with Words by Nubia Navarro (@nubikini).

English version by @eloise_edgington.

You may also like:

- 5 Free Lettering Tutorials for Perfectionists
- Everything You Need to Know About Vector File Formats
- Photoshop Tutorial: Essential Shortcuts to Create Textures
- Drawing 101: Introduction to Digital Illustration, a course by Jean Fraisse
- Illustrated Portraits: Adobe Fresco for Beginners, a course by Carina Lindmeier