High-Priority Sketch Shortcuts

Why Use Shortcuts?

Using shortcuts will dramatically increase your productivity. It’s substantially faster to add a rectangle using R than it is to go to the Insert Menu, click on Shapes and then click on Rectangles. These time savings compound with every repeated action giving us more time to do work that really matters. After committing these shortcuts to memory, you’ll spend less time focusing on how to accomplish something with Sketch, and more time doing. To be clear, this is not a comprehensive list of shortcuts within Sketch, but more of a curated list that I consider essential for my workflows.

Insert Shapes

These are some of the most repeated actions that you’ll use in Sketch. If nothing else, learn these.

A Insert Artboard
R Insert Rectangle
O Insert Oval
L Insert Line
T Insert Text Layer
shift Hold down when creating a shape to constrain proportions

option Hold down when creating a shape to draw the shape from the center.

General Shortcuts

command+C Copy Selected Objects
command+X Cut Selected Objects
command+D Duplicate Selected Objects
command+V Paste from Copied Objects
space bar Hold down and click to move the canvas
delete Delete Selected Objects
command+Z Undo Last Action

Editing Layers

You'll have to have a layer selected first.

return Edit Selected Layer
control+C Color Picker
1234567890 Change Layer Opacity
command+ Click - Select Any Layer (Ignores Groups)
shift+command+R Rotate
shift+command+T Transform

Organizing Layers

command+G Group
shift+command+G Ungroup
option+command+▲Move Selected Layer Forward
option+command+▼ Move Selected Layer Backward
tab Moves down the layer list
shift+tab Moves up the layer list
command+R Renames Layer

Text Layers

command+B Bold
command+I Italic
command+U Underline
shift+command+} Align Text Right
shift+command+{ Align Text Left
shift+command+| Center Align Text

Zooming

command+0 Zoom to Actual Size
command+2 Zoom to Selected Item
command++ Zoom In
command+- Zoom Out

Resources

High-Priority Sketch Shortcut Flashcards
Sketch Shortcuts Documentation - SketchApp