Photoshop now includes smart guides which appear on the screen as you move layers around, informing you of the location of the layer relative to other layers. I use the top and left align functions almost as much as center so I have keyboard shortcuts setup for those as well. Take it even further and sign keyboard shortcuts to other alignment functions. Just make the selection (super easy if you’re using guides for your grid) with the layer selected and hit the keyboard shortcut and you’re done. You can also center layers by any marquee selection you make yourself which can come in handy at times, especially if you want to center a layer along the third column of a layout for example. This now allows you to center one layer in the middle of another simply by selecting them both and using the keyboard shortcut.

If you want to use a different keyboard shortcut, you can create your own by going to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts… but I find this works really well. They do feel a little odd at first but once you get used to these keyboard shortcuts it saves a tremendous amount of time over locating icons in the UI. The important thing here is these combinations aren’t being used by Photoshop for any built-in keyboard shortcuts and it’s quick and easy to trigger with your left hand. The keyboard shortcuts I use to center horizontally and vertically are: I’m lazy, so let’s make this process even faster by creating our own keyboard shortcut to center the layer. I’m not happy with moving my mouse and clicking on a button. You can also drill down in the menus by going to Layer > Align Layers to Selection and clicking on the appropriate alignment choices there but who wants to do that? Not me and in fact, I have an even quicker way than even selecting the move tool and clicking the icons. Click both to center the layer exactly in the middle of the document. With the layer you want to center selected and the marquee tool active, press CTRL + A to select the whole document and then within the move tool (keyboard shortcut: V), click either the “Align vertical centers” or the “Align horizontal centers” button (highlighted below). The Processįirst, let’s look at how we can use this technique to center a layer in the middle of a document. Then it quickly becomes second nature and an important part of your Photoshop process. It’s one of those things you discover, use for five minutes and think “why didn’t I know about this before?!”. The fastest way to center element(s) in photoshop is by using the marquee selection tool and I didn’t even know it was possible until recently. The Fastest Way: Center via Marquee Selection It seemed like the fastest way at the time but I got stuck in my ways and I now have a much faster way of doing it. That seems like madness now, even though I was used to it and it didn’t seem to be a problem.

What if I want to center a layer to a part of the design that isn’t the middle of the document? Well, I used to create a guide in the center of the area I needed by either pressing CMD + T on and existing layer or using Select > Transform Selection and moving a guide to the center of the bounding box indicated by the handles. I would then move the layer into position by pressing CMD + T (free transform) and lining up the handles in middle to the guide. It’s simple enough to create a guide in the center of the canvas ( View > New Guide… > Vertical orientation with position set as 50%) If I needed to center something, I would have to setup a guide first, which can be quite long winded. Previously I would make use of guides to center layers. To get an idea of how much time I’ve gained, let’s first look at how I used to do it. If I can save a few seconds every time I need to center something, I can take less time drawing out my ideas on screen. One of the most frequent tasks I do in Photoshop is moving layers so they’re in the center of other layers or sections, so I decided to figure out how I can do it faster.

Perfect layers vs layer guides