How To Center A Shape In Photoshop

One of the most frequent tasks I do in Photoshop is to move layers so that they are in the center of other layers or sections, so I decided to figure out how I could do it faster. If I could save a few seconds every time I needed to center something, I could spend less time drawing my ideas on the screen.

Slow road

Contents

To see how much time I’ve spent, first look at how I’ve done it. Previously, I would use paths to center layers. If I need to center something, I’ll have to set up a guide first, which can be quite verbose.View > New guide… > Vertical orientation with position set to 50%) Then I will move the layer into position by pressing CMD + BILLION (transform freely) and align the pins in the center of the guide. What if I want to center a layer to a part of the design that is not in the center of the document? I once created a guide in the regional center I needed by pressing CMD + BILLION above and existing or used layer Option > Switch selection and move a guide to the center of the bounding box indicated by the handles. That seems crazy now, although I’ve gotten used to it and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. It seemed to be the fastest way at the time but I was stuck in my way and now I have a much faster way.

Fastest way: Centering via Marquee Selection

Read more: how to set pulse on kodi 17 krypton The fastest way to center element(s) in photoshop is to use the marquee selector and I didn’t even know that was possible until recently. It’s one of those things you discover, use for five minutes, and think “why didn’t I know about this before?!”. After that, it quickly becomes second nature and an important part of your Photoshop process.

Progress

First, let’s see how we can use this technique to center a layer in the center of the document. With the layer you want to center selected and the selection tool active, press CONTROL + One to select the whole document and then in the move tool (shortcut: DRAW), click the “Align Center Centers Vertically” button or the “Align Centers Horizontally” button (highlighted below). Click both to precisely center the layer in the center of the document.You can also view menu details by going to Class > Align layers to selection and click on the appropriate alignment choices there but who wants to do that? Not me and in fact I have an even faster way than selecting the move tool and clicking the icons.

Custom keyboard shortcuts

I’m not satisfied with moving the mouse and clicking a button. I’m lazy, so let’s make this process even faster by creating our own keyboard shortcut to center the layer. The keyboard shortcuts I use to center horizontally and vertically are:

Vertical: ALT + CMD + first
Horizontal: CHANGE + CMD + first

The important thing here is that these combinations are not used by Photoshop for any of the built-in keyboard shortcuts and are very quick and easy to activate with your left hand. They feel a bit odd at first, but once you get used to these shortcuts, it saves a lot of time locating icons in the user interface. , you can create your own by going to Edit > Keyboard shortcuts… but i found this to work really well.

More power!

This now allows you to center one layer in the middle of another simply by selecting both and using keyboard shortcuts. You can also center layers with any selection of your own, which can be useful sometimes, especially if you want to center a layer along the third column of your layout, for example. Just make a selection (extremely easy if you’re using guides for your mesh) with the layer selected and hit the keyboard shortcut and you’re done. I use the top and left alignment functions almost centered so I set up shortcuts for those as well. Other layers. You can position the layers in the center vertically and horizontally using these smart guides but it can be confusing in a complex document with many layers as it can be hard to tell. whether it is exactly in the middle of a particular layer or not is actually aligning with another layer. This is why I still recommend using the above method most of the time.