A tool you can fly is a different tool. The gap between “competent” and “fast” in any drawing app is almost entirely keyboard shortcuts - the muscle memory that lets your hand stay on the canvas while the other hand changes everything around it. Hyperdraw has the map you’d expect from a desktop app. Here’s the part worth committing to memory.
(On a Mac, swap Ctrl for ⌘ and Alt for ⌥.)
One key per tool
Don’t go to the toolbar. Tap the letter:
- B - Brush. Tap it again to cycle through brush presets.
- E - Eraser
- G - Fill (tap again for Gradient)
- I - Color Picker
- M - Mask Brush (cycles to Rectangular Selection, then Magic Wand)
- W - Magic Wand · L - Lasso
- V - Move (cycles Canvas / Transform) · Q - Liquify
- Z or hold Space - Pan · C - Crop · T - Text
The repeat-to-cycle trick is the one people miss. B B B walks your brush presets without ever opening the picker. / toggles between your two most recent presets - the single best key for “ink, then blend, then ink again.”
Change the brush without leaving the canvas
- [ and ] - shrink / grow the brush
- 1-9 - set opacity to 10-90%, 0 - full opacity
Your eyes never leave what you’re painting. This is the difference between adjusting a brush and interrupting yourself to adjust a brush.
The two moves every painter wants
- Shift + Click, then drag - a perfectly straight line. Works with Brush, Eraser, Liquify, and the Mask Brush.
- Alt + Click - eyedropper. Pull a color straight off the canvas without switching tools.
Blend modes, no menu
Hold Alt + Shift and tap a letter to set the brush (or Fill) blend mode on the fly:
- M Multiply · S Screen · O Overlay · F Soft Light
- K Darken · G Lighten · D Color Dodge · N Normal
Reaching for Multiply mid-stroke instead of hunting a dropdown is exactly the kind of friction that keyboard shortcuts delete.
Selections
- Ctrl + A select all · Ctrl + D deselect
- Shift + drag add to a selection · Alt + drag subtract
- Delete clears the selected area · Alt + Backspace fills the whole canvas with the current color
Layers (where layers are enabled)
- Ctrl + J - new layer from the selection (or duplicate the layer)
- Ctrl + Shift + J - cut the selection to its own layer
- Ctrl + E - merge down · Alt + [ / Alt + ] - move the active layer down / up
The ones you’ll use a thousand times
- Ctrl + Z undo · Ctrl + Shift + Z (or Ctrl + Y) redo
A note on touch
This is the desktop story. On a phone or tablet you’ve got direct touch, the brush-preset picker, and the Back button to close fullscreen panels - no keyboard required. But if you’re at a desk with a stylus in one hand, the keyboard in the other is what makes this feel less like software and more like an instrument.
Learn five keys today - B, [ ], Shift+Click, Alt+Click, / - and go play at hyperdraw.art. The rest will stick on their own.
Want the whole map in front of you while you work? The app has this list built in - open it any time with Ctrl + /, or jump straight there: hyperdraw.art/#keyboard-hotkeys.