Shortcut cheat sheet: Adobe Illustrator

By on January 6, 2012 in Design Tips and Resources

Being a designer is a time-consuming business. We’re always looking for ways to save time and using keyboard shortcuts is one of our favorite ways to do that. Plus, it’s just fun.

But there are so many shortcuts out there. How do you keep track? With our Shortcut Cheat Sheet of course! We assembled all of our favorite and most-used shortcuts in one sheet for easy reference.

Plus, it’s printable! So, don’t forget to print a copy and place it by your computer.

Enjoy :)

Don’t want to use these shortcuts? You can always create your own. Under Illustrator’s “Edit” menu, click on “Keyboard Shortcuts” and you will find a much more thorough guide to all of the shortcuts Adobe offers and you can edit them to create your own system.

If you don’t use Illustrator — no worries. This is just Part I in a series of guides we’re going to provide for a bunch of programs.

Check out our other Shortcut Cheat Sheets: Adobe Photoshop

If there is a program you want a cheat sheet for, list it in the comments! We’ll put it in the queue.

Kaitlyn is part of the Community Team at 99designs.com. She grew up in Boulder, CO and went to school at Northwestern University in Chicago. When she's not blogging, she spends her time having adventures and being generally creative. She's all about having new experiences as often as possible!
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29 Comments

  1. Ars Terra

    Very usefull! Thanks!!!

    Reply January 6, 2012 at 11:31 am
  2. Ruud10

    One for the Corel Draw crew please

    Reply January 6, 2012 at 12:06 pm
  3. Imran

    very useful thanks for sharing

    Reply January 6, 2012 at 12:51 pm
  4. tristan

    thankz………..i need it..!

    Reply January 7, 2012 at 1:00 am
  5. OneTen

    Yeah Please for CorelDraw…!

    Reply January 7, 2012 at 2:14 am
  6. halloronnie

    thanks, really useful

    Reply January 7, 2012 at 5:12 am
  7. Dragon

    tq! ;)

    Reply January 8, 2012 at 4:42 am
  8. dsincos

    Thanks, very nice and useful…

    Reply January 8, 2012 at 6:31 am
  9. Tai

    This is great! Thank you very much!

    Reply January 8, 2012 at 9:52 am
  10. richierichcomics

    NICE!

    Reply January 8, 2012 at 1:57 pm
  11. Antagonist Design

    nice!! thx for the list shortcut! ;)

    Reply January 8, 2012 at 10:05 pm
  12. Marcos Paulo

    Congratulations man!

    This post is awesome!

    I don’t knew about edit Illustrator shortcuts in edit menu!

    Tks!

    Reply January 9, 2012 at 7:33 am
  13. Adeline

    Very useful.Thank you!

    Reply January 10, 2012 at 11:49 pm
  14. W4L4CH1

    Great, this is what I need. Nice post, awesome.
    Thank you.

    Reply January 11, 2012 at 1:26 am
  15. tobaccotown

    thanks, you it really helps..

    Reply January 12, 2012 at 9:24 am
  16. Navraj

    Thanks, this sheet could be of great use. Could there be a cheatsheet for Corel Draw X5. Again, Thank you

    Reply January 13, 2012 at 8:54 pm
  17. Sharer

    Ctrl + Shift + O
    Font/Text Outlines :)

    Reply January 17, 2012 at 2:57 pm
    • Allison Stuart

      Thanks for the extra tip ;)

      Reply January 17, 2012 at 4:50 pm
      • Sharer

        You re welcome :)

        Reply January 17, 2012 at 4:56 pm
  18. Nclex Prep

    I have a great pleasure to read this blog. I hope to get more information here. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply January 19, 2012 at 10:36 pm
  19. Rafa

    Please Autodesk Maya ! *O*

    Reply January 20, 2012 at 11:53 am
  20. omini

    i would to try using Ai now ;)

    Reply January 20, 2012 at 1:56 pm
  21. Lorraine

    Will the photoshop cheat sheet work for InDesign? Thanks

    Reply February 14, 2012 at 9:24 pm
    • Allison Stuart

      Just wait for this weeks Shortcut Cheat Sheet ;)

      Reply February 14, 2012 at 11:43 pm
  22. Alhuzin

    Thanks, it is cool and very usefull. thanks 99 staff

    Reply May 10, 2012 at 2:35 pm
  23. EghaBryan

    Thanks very full

    Reply July 9, 2012 at 11:38 am
  24. ITS CSULA

    Wow great tutorial! if anyone needs any more tutorials on illustrator, a group of student teachers at my university produced a series Adobe applications educational videos. Our free videos include instructions and examples so you can follow along at home with the online instructor.

    We have free lessons on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

    Check it out at:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/MyCSULA

    Reply August 17, 2012 at 2:34 pm
  25. someone

    Nice sheet, you have made an error though (just in case you don’t already know). Send to back should be: Ctrl+Shft+[

    Reply September 5, 2012 at 4:31 am
  26. Melissa

    You have bring to front and send to back listed as the same thing. Please fix.

    Reply October 24, 2012 at 8:07 pm

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