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Photoshop Tidbit: Alt Dragging

Time saving trick for masks.


PshopTidbit2.jpg

I discovered this little gem of a time saver completely by accident. Thanks to a former co-worker of mine I knew about the benefits of Alt+ dragging a layer’s layer effect icon to copy that layer’s style onto another layer.

AltDrag_effect.jpg

But what I didn’t know was that you could do the same for the layer’s mask. Just make sure the cursor’s over the layer mask icon.

AltDrag_Mask.jpg

then voila!
AltDrag_result.jpg

Of course it makes sense to me now since Alt+dragging almost anywhere in Photoshop means to copy while dragging.

e.g. in the Gradient Map sliders
AltDrag-gradmap.jpg

Layers and layer groups
AltDrag_folder.jpg

Pretty much anything you can drag, try Alt+dragging and see if it works as a time-saving copier.

Andrew Davies

Drew's degrees in Illustration, 2D animation and Broadcast Design, and his volleyball skillz mean he can get your design done and play well with others at the same time. He’s the Creative Director at Paragon and will call you out if you start hanging out with shady-looking fonts and messing around with whacked-out color palettes.

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