Changing brush size shortcuts(Ctrl+alt +second click and drag)

[eligijusk36286930]

Hello, is where any way to change brush size/hardness shortcut (CTRL + ATL + second mouse button drag) to something else? It is extremely uncomfortable while using a graphic tablet. Sadly can't find anything similar in Keyboard shortcut menu.

[davescm · Accepted solution]

Can you not just use :

[   ]  to decrease/increase size

{  }  to decrease /increase brush hardness

Dave

[eligijusk36286930]

Well, it is biggest let down in humans history. Using [   ]  or {  }  is not intuitive and slow, it greatly disrupts my workflow. Let's hope I can find a way to bypass this using some sort of macro/script if not I would have to give up on using photoshop.

[Barb Binder]

Well, it is biggest let down in humans history.

Really?

In addition to changing the brush size by typing/dragging in the brushes panel, you have two different shortcuts styles to pick from:

• Ctrl + Opt + drag left/right (Mac) -or- Alt + Right Mouse button + drag left/right (Windows)
• [ ]

These options have kept both me and my Photoshop students happy for 25 years. I'm very curious to learn what you think would be better? If you have come up with an awesome idea for brush size changing, why don't you let Adobe know?

Photoshop Family Customer Community

~~~~~~~~~~

Posted edited by Barb on 03.04.18 to correct the shortcuts shown in first bullet.

[eligijusk36286930]

Really. Ctrl + Alt + drag would be great but it is Ctrl + Alt + "CLICK" and drag. Then I holding and moving my stylus the last thing I want to be pressing buttons on it all the time. What would be better? Well like I mentioned for me just pressing "Ctrl + Alt + drag"(no second mouse button involved ) Corel painter have a system like this and it works wonderfully. I search about this issue quite a bit even before posting on this forum and it is not me alone who find it extremely uncomfortable. And it seems it was already mentioned to adobe staff quite a few times. I like to mention it is not like I am trying to trash photoshop by my replay, I really want to get this working for me. And I also know plenty of people like you who are fine with a current shortcut, but like you said photoshop is active for more than 25 years and is leading software in many fields it seems to be natural to expect they implement full customization system, why limit it to few tools?

[Barb Binder]

Corel painter have a system like this and it works wonderfully.

That is something concrete that you can pass on to Adobe via the link I gave you above. When lots of people request a specific feature, it increases the likelihood that Adobe will consider adding it to a future version.

[Openbook]

Amen! I have this exact line of thought.. even worse is when you change OSs often like some of us (Win\Mac for example) the button to press is reversed, it's completly counter intuitive. removing the extra click would solve sooooo many usability issues. How is this not yet possible to configure is a complete mistery or lack of community feedback awareness 😞

[Paula Shin]

In addition to changing the brush size by typing/dragging in the brushes panel, you have two different shortcuts styles to pick from:

• Ctrl + Alt + drag
• [ ]

BarbBinder​

How do I set up the CTRL + ALT + DRAG?

If I do that, then it duplicates the layer I'm using...

I would really love to use just just "ctrl alt drag" instead of my current CTRL + ALT + RIGHT CLICK + DRAG

[Barb Binder]

Hi Paula:

My apologies. That was a mistake. On a Mac it's Control + Option + drag left/right in order to decrease/ increase brush size. On Windows, it's Alt + Right Mouse + drag left/right to decrease/ increase brush size. (I'm a Mac user and should have checked the Windows shortcut before posting it.)

~Barb

[Paula Shin]

Ooooh I see!

It would be perfect if I could set up the same shortcut for windows...  cause Clip Studio Paint that I always used for ilustrations use the same logic, and I feel its way more intuitive.

Is there a way to set up to Left Mouse instead of Right Mouse?

[Barb Binder]

I don't think so, Paula. That's the subject of the original question for this post. Tapping the bracket keys: [ and ] are a good alternative if you don't care for the these shortcuts.

~Barb

[Paula Shin]

Yea, I already use the bracket keys as an alternative.

Still... I'll send in a suggestion to the link you mentioned above.. .

Since it already exists on Mac, I don't see why not Its a simple stuff that could be added to the shortcut menu

Thanks for the reply anyway!

[cobra_256]

We care to have these shortcuts in general, but there are issues:

-- If you have a Amazon.com: Staedtler Noris Digital Samsung Pencil, EMR Technology, Yellow Black (GP-U999ERIPAAB): C... there is no right click at all!

-- Some of us get used to these shortcuts in other apps like Corel Painter and Clip Studio Paint. Customization enables us to reduce differences between the many apps we use.

-- If you have Mac at work and Windows at home (or vice versa), then the switch up in the canvas shortcuts is problematic.

-- The utility of customizing shortcuts is clearly recognized by Adobe as we can currently customize them for "Application Menus", "Panel Menus" and "Tools". Now we just need "Canvas".

I wanted to point out the above in order to keep this issue alive and well understood.

Btw I tried the autohotkey script and it doesn't work for me. For one thing, the alt down portion puts PS into color picking mode.

[cobra_256]

One more aspect to add. For some people, it's a hand shake issue. See:

Is there a way to change the Photoshop Alt + Right-click-drag brush size hotkey? - Graphic Design St...

[Alexander_Fetisov]

Btw I tried the autohotkey script and it doesn't work for me. For one thing, the alt down portion puts PS into color picking mode.

Sorry I forgot to mention that you can't touch the surface while dragging. I'm trying to come up with a better solution.

[Alexander_Fetisov]

ctrl+alt+drag is already reserved for creating copies of the things you're dragging.

So if you want you can use Alt+D+Drag shortcut for Brush resize or any other shortcut. I use alt+d myself.

There's a program called AHK which lets you remap your keyboard to your liking.

Install it, create a text file and copy-paste this code below.

#IfWinActive ahk_class Photoshop

!d::

  Send {alt down}{Click,down,right}

  KeyWait d 

  Send {alt up}{Click,up,right}

return

Change extension of your text file to .ahk

Double click your file to run it.

Now you can resize your brush by holding alt+d and dragging your mouse/pen.

The first line makes this script work only in Photoshop.

!d means Alt+d. For instance ^d would mean ctrl+d.

You can make an exe file out of your script and run it with windows start up. Ahk to exe compiler is in the ahk's installation folder.

Hope it helps!

PS

I think people who made Photoshop were not thinking that it could be used for painting or drawing. While painting I have to create and merge down like 100 layers and every time I have to use this terrible Ctrl+alt+shift+n combination which is impossible to hit with one hand and you can't change it to something simpler for God knows why. I use ahk to change it to ctrl+n

[Paula Shin]

thats a pretty good solution Alexander.

Might try it.

Actually I remapped the brush size to A/S

Its really easy to remember close to the bracket keys. But the idea you gave was pretty good.

Gonna save it

[Rimas5FC7]

Hi Paula! How did you do this? Would you mind to post the quick script in here? That would be super helpful!

[Glennmel]

I agree, and would like to know the answer to the original question: 'How do you remap ALT-Rightclick to something else'.

Regardless of what your students want, or like, or use, I'd like to make the dynamic scale of my brush configurable to something other than the default so I can map a common keybinding to my drawing tablet as my other drawing software.

This is a question of where the shortcut is hidden in order to remap it, rather than a how I or you prefer to work.

Does anyone know how to find this particular keyboard shortcut?

Thanks

Glenn

[Barb Binder]

Hi Glennmel:

The shortcuts that you can change are listed in Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. If you don't find it there (and I don't see it), then I'd suggest you file a feature request with Adobe here: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family?topic-list[settings][type]=idea.

~Barb

[SkepticOne]

Thank you!!!!

[Barb Binder]

Happy to help.

~Barb

[Mike_Gondek]

Hi Barb or Anyone,

Is there a draggable softness key command to change brush? I though this used to work, but maybe i was dreaming:

• Ctrl + Opt + drag up/down (Mac)

Though we have nondraggable key commands for softness, this is done so many times back and forth would be great. Maybe CC2019 has this as I am at work most waking hours i can barely touch 2019.

[mag1968]

Hi Barb i have photoshop cc 2020 with OS Catalina and the the ctrl+opt+drag stylus does not work as it did in cs6 can you help please ?

[ronlacy]

The problem that I am having is that I will work in Photoshop a LOT for a month of two or more, and then won't be back using it for like 6 - 8 months. Therefore, I FORGET most of the keys!

I NEED to change the sizes of my pens for my pencil, eye dropper, clone stamp, etc. I vaguely remembered using the [  ] keys but that did not work?  So then I tried looking it up in Photoshop Help, and on Youtube.

I found something that said, HOLD ALT + CTRL ---------, some are saying hold those keys and then DRAG with the mouse. Well NOTHING is working. I know that I have had this PROBLEM many times, and it is usually an easy fix, but so far no luck. But EVERY TIME I forget some keys, I then have to spend minutes or HOURS looking it up. Even Photoshop HELP is as complicated as the program is itself. FIVE times I searched the PS Help PDF file and I NEVER found anything about the [  ] or the  {  } keys relating to changing pen, etc. sizes.  Their Help is not very helpful...

I consider what eligijusk36286930 was saying way back on Mar 04, 2017 IS a valid complaint! However, I would say the problem is true about a lot of things in Photoshop. My conclusion, with 38 years of computer experience: is I LOVE Photoshop but it is not INTUITIVE, or User Friendly!

eligijusk36286930 mentioned Corel Painter as being easier, but I know of a lot of programs that are very Intuitive and User Friendly, but Photoshop is not one of them. I also like to play video games, and some are so user friendly that you have a very small learning curve. I have two that I like a lot but the keys are so complicated that I GAVE UP on them after a while.