Keyboard Shortcuts in ART

Almost all the keyboard shortcuts of ART can be changed or disabled, and the modifier key that they use (Ctrl by default) can be switched to the Cmd key on macOS or the Windows key on other systems. The first part of this page explains how; the second part lists the shortcuts that ART uses out of the box.

Customising the shortcuts

The Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Preferences

Open Preferences and select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. It shows all the actions that have a shortcut, as a tree grouped by area (Editor, File Browser, Queue, …), with the current shortcut of each action. Select an action and use the buttons below the tree:

  • Change… (or double-click the action) asks you to press the new shortcut, which replaces the current one(s). Press Esc to give up.
  • Add key… does the same, but adds the new shortcut to the existing ones: an action can have more than one.
  • Disable removes all the shortcuts of the action.
  • Reset goes back to the standard shortcut(s) of the action, and Reset all does that for every action (and for the modifiers described below).

The shortcuts that you changed are shown in bold. The search box above the tree finds actions by name or by shortcut (for instance type zoom to see all the zoom actions); press Esc in the box to clear the search. Clearing it keeps the action that you had selected, and shows it in the tree.

Nothing is saved until you press OK, and the new shortcuts are used the next time ART is started.

The primary modifier and the mouse modifier

Two choices below the tree control the modifier keys:

  • Primary modifier of the shortcuts. Most shortcuts use the “primary” modifier, which is Ctrl by default (Ctrl-s to save, Ctrl-z to undo, …). You can change it to Cmd on macOS, or to the Windows key on other systems: all the shortcuts that use it follow, so Ctrl-s becomes Cmd-s, Ctrl-z becomes Cmd-z, and so on. A shortcut that you assigned explicitly with Ctrl (while the primary modifier is the Cmd or Windows key) stays on Ctrl.
  • Modifier of the mouse actions. The actions that combine a key with the mouse (Ctrl-click to reset a slider, Ctrl-click on the save and queue buttons for a fast export, Ctrl-click to extend a selection in the file browser, Ctrl-drag in the crop, curve, mask and spot tools, …) have their own setting, which is Ctrl by default and can be changed to the Cmd or Windows key independently of the primary modifier. This is useful on macOS, where Ctrl-click is also a right click. The tooltips of ART follow your choice.

While the primary modifier is Ctrl, a key pressed together with Cmd or the Windows key never triggers a shortcut (Cmd-z is not taken for a plain z).

Conflicts and shortcuts reserved by the system

When you assign a shortcut that is already in use, ART asks what you want to do:

  • if the other action is in the same place (for instance two actions of the editor), you can reassign the shortcut, taking it away from the other action, or cancel;
  • if the other action is not in the same place but can be active at the same time (a window-wide shortcut such as quit or close tab, or an action of the same tab), you can also choose Keep both: only one of the two will react to the key;
  • on macOS, ART also warns you if the shortcut is one that the system uses (Mission Control, Spotlight, screenshots, Cmd-, for the preferences, …), since the system may take the key before ART can see it. You can still Assign anyway: the check depends on your system settings (see System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts).

When you switch the primary modifier to Cmd on macOS, ART checks all the shortcuts that use it, and asks, one by one, what to do with the ones that the system reserves: Keep it, Choose another key…, Disable it, or Go back to Ctrl, which cancels the change.

Editing the shortcuts file

Everything that the Preferences tab does is stored in a text file called shortcuts.json in the ART configuration folder (the one that contains the options file; typically $HOME/.config/ART on Linux and macOS and %LOCALAPPDATA%\ART on Windows), which you can also edit by hand. Each time ART starts, it writes the file shortcuts_reference.json in the same folder, which lists all the actions with their standard shortcuts and describes the syntax: copy the entries that you want to change into shortcuts.json (the file is created if it doesn’t exist) and restart ART. For example:

{
    "version": 1,

    // "Ctrl" (the default), or the OS key: "Cmd" on macOS, "Super" (the Windows key) elsewhere
    "primary_modifier": "Ctrl",
    "mouse_primary_modifier": "Ctrl",

    "bindings": {
        // replace the shortcut of an action
        "editor.undo": ["Primary+Alt+Z"],
        // more than one shortcut is fine
        "editor.redo": ["Primary+Shift+Z", "Primary+Y"],
        // an empty list disables the shortcut
        "filebrowser.rename": []
    }
}
  • Only the actions listed in the file change: all the others keep their standard shortcuts. An action that is listed replaces all of its standard shortcuts.
  • A shortcut is written [Primary+][Ctrl+][Alt+][Shift+]<key>, where <key> is the name of the key: a letter or digit (z, 5), F3, Delete, Return, space, Left, Page_Down, … Characters that are hard to type are spelled out: plus, minus, equal, less, greater, comma, period, slash, asterisk, underscore, bracketleft, bracketright. Write the Shift explicitly for letters and digits (Shift+R). The modifiers must match exactly: Primary+S does not fire for Primary+Shift+S.
  • Primary is whichever key you chose as the primary modifier (Ctrl by default). Ctrl is always the physical Control key, which is the same as Primary as long as the primary modifier is Ctrl.
  • Comments (// ...) are allowed. Saving from the Preferences rewrites the file and does not keep them: the previous version is saved once as shortcuts.json.bak.
  • Problems in the file (an unknown action, a key that cannot be read, a key that another action of the same place already uses) are reported on the standard error and the entry is ignored: ART always starts. If you start ART from a terminal with the environment variable ART_SHORTCUTS_DEBUG=1, it also prints which action each key press triggers.

Default shortcuts

These are the shortcuts that ART uses unless you change them. Ctrl stands for the primary modifier: it is Ctrl by default, or the Cmd or Windows key if you chose it as described above. The shortcuts of the same area that use the same key are valid in different situations (for instance l shows the left panel in both the editor and the file browser).

Some shortcuts are only valid in some contexts, which are given in the Where column.

Anywhere

Where Shortcut Action
Anywhere F11 Toggle full screen.
Anywhere Ctrl-w Close the current editor tab.
Anywhere Ctrl-q Quit ART.
Anywhere Ctrl-F2 File browser.
Anywhere Ctrl-F3 Processing queue.
Anywhere Ctrl-F4 Editor.

Editor

Where Shortcut Action
Editor m Show/hide all side panels.
Editor Shift-m Show/hide all side panels and fit the image to the screen.
Editor l Show/hide the left panel (including the history).
Editor Ctrl-l Show/hide the right panel.
Editor Alt-l Show/hide the left and right panels.
Editor Shift-l Show/hide the top panel.
Editor 9 Cycle the background color of the preview: theme-based, black, white, middle grey.
Editor Shift-i Quick info on the image.
Editor Shift-a Toggle the Before/After view.
Editor Ctrl-z Undo.
Editor Ctrl-Shift-z, Ctrl-y Redo.
Editor Alt-s Create a new snapshot.
Editor Ctrl-,, Ctrl-. Show the previous / next snapshot.
Editor Ctrl-g Show/hide the grid.
Editor Ctrl-s (Ctrl-Shift-s for fast export) Save the current image (Ctrl-click the button for fast export).
Editor Ctrl-b (Ctrl-Shift-b for fast export) Put the current image in the processing queue (Ctrl-click the button for fast export).
Editor Ctrl-e (Ctrl-Shift-e for fast export) Edit the current image in an external editor (Ctrl-click the button for fast export).
Editor Shift-F3, Shift-F4 Open the previous / next image relative to the image opened in the Editor.
Editor F3, F4 Open the previous / next image relative to the currently selected thumbnail in the File Browser or Filmstrip.
Editor x Synchronize the File Browser or Filmstrip with the Editor, to reveal the thumbnail of the currently opened image, clearing any active filters.
Editor y As above, but without clearing the active filters (the thumbnail of the opened image will not be shown if it is filtered out).
Editor [, ] Rotate left / right.
Editor Ctrl-Up, Ctrl-Down, Ctrl-Left, Ctrl-Right Move the image in the preview (also with the numeric keypad arrows).

Editor: zoom and previews

Where Shortcut Action
Editor z Zoom to 100%.
Editor f Fit the whole image (or the crop) to the screen.
Editor +, = Zoom in.
Editor -, _ Zoom out.
Editor > Clipped highlight indication.
Editor < Clipped shadow indication.
Editor Shift-e Toggle exposure indication using false color.
Editor Shift-r Preview the red channel.
Editor Shift-g Preview the green channel.
Editor Shift-b Preview the blue channel.
Editor Shift-v Preview the luminosity.
Editor Shift-f Preview the focus mask. More accurate on images with shallow depth of field, low noise and at higher zoom levels; zoom out to 10-30% to improve detection accuracy on noisy images.
Editor Shift-o Preview the sharpening contrast mask. Only works when sharpening is enabled and zoom >= 100%.

Editor: tools

Where Shortcut Action
Editor h, Shift-h Hand tool.
Editor Shift-c Crop selection. Move the crop using Shift+mouse drag; resize the crop using Ctrl+mouse drag.
Editor Shift-s Straighten / fine rotation. Indicate the vertical or horizontal by drawing a guide line over the image preview; the angle of rotation is shown next to the guide line; the center of rotation is the geometrical center of the image.
Editor Shift-p Perspective correction.
Editor Shift-w Spot white balance.
Editor F1 Show the help for the keyboard shortcuts of the tools.

Editor: tabs of the tool panel

Where Shortcut Action
Editor Alt-u Switch to the Favorites tab.
Editor Alt-e Switch to the Exposure tab.
Editor Alt-d Switch to the Detail tab.
Editor Alt-c Switch to the Color tab.
Editor Alt-t Switch to the Transform tab.
Editor Alt-r Switch to the Raw tab.
Editor Alt-f Switch to the Effects tab.
Editor Alt-x Switch to the Local tab.
Editor Alt-m Switch to the Metadata tab.

Editor: local editing masks

Where Shortcut Action
Editor Ctrl-m Show/hide the mask of the selected region.
Editor Ctrl-x Enable/disable the selected region.
Editor (drawn mask) Ctrl-z, Ctrl-Shift-z In a drawn mask: undo the last strokes group / remove all the strokes.

The two mask shortcuts act on the region that you worked on last, in any of the tools that have masks (the last region that you selected, or whose mask you showed): you don’t need to have the mask panel focused, you can use them while the focus is on the preview or on another tool. They only work while the header of that tool is visible (also if the tool is folded), for instance not while you are looking at another tab of the tool panel; if it is not, the key does whatever else it is assigned to. Ctrl-x is not taken over while you are typing in a text field, where it keeps cutting text. Only one mask is shown at a time: showing the mask of another tool hides the previous one.

Editor: adjusting the sliders with the keyboard

Hold the key of a slider, and press + or - to increase or decrease its value, 0 or * to set it to zero, or / to bring it back to its initial value. F1 shows the same help in the program. Only the sliders listed below have a key by default, but every slider of the tools of the Exposure, Detail, Color and Effects tabs (Sharpening, Denoise, Dehaze, Black and White, …) can be given one in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Preferences: look for it under Tool in the tree.

Where Key Slider
Editor e Exposure: compensation
Editor q Exposure: black
Editor c Tone curve: contrast
Editor s Saturation
Editor v Vibrance
Editor i Lab adjustments: brightness
Editor j Lab adjustments: contrast
Editor n Lab adjustments: chromaticity
Editor t White balance: temperature
Editor g Log encoding: gain
Editor b Log encoding: target gray
Editor w Log encoding: white EV
Editor d Log encoding: black EV
Editor k Log encoding: highlight compression
Editor 1 to 5 Tone equalizer: the five bands
Editor o Soft light: strength

File Browser

Where Shortcut Action
File Browser F5 Refresh the list of thumbnails.
File Browser Ctrl-f Focus the Find box. Type filenames to search for; partial filenames are supported. Separate the search terms using commas, e.g. 1001,1004,1199. Exclude search terms by prefixing them with !=, e.g. !=1001,1004,1199.
File Browser Enter In the Find box: search. In the path box: go to the folder that you typed.
File Browser Esc Reset the path box to the current folder (and give the focus back to the thumbnails).
File Browser Ctrl-o Focus the path box.
File Browser l, Ctrl-l, Ctrl-Alt-l Show/hide the left panel / the right panel / both.
File Browser m Show/hide all side panels.
File Browser t Show/hide the toolbar.
File Browser i, Alt-i Show Exif info.
File Browser +, Alt-+ Increase the thumbnail size.
File Browser -, Alt– Decrease the thumbnail size.
File Browser Ctrl-i Activate the inspector.
File Browser Ctrl-t Show the contents of the trash.
File Browser Ctrl-Shift-Delete Empty the trash (when the trash is shown).

Filters (hold Ctrl to add to the current filter):

Where Shortcut Action
File Browser 0 Show unranked images.
File Browser 1 to 5 Show images ranked as 1 to 5 stars.
File Browser 6 Show not edited images.
File Browser 7 Show edited images.
File Browser Alt-0 Show images without a color label.
File Browser Alt-1 to Alt-5 Show images labeled Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple.
File Browser Alt-6 Show unsaved images.
File Browser Alt-7 Show saved images.
File Browser d Clear all filters.

On the thumbnails:

Where Shortcut Action
File Browser Left, Right, Up, Down Move the selection (add Shift to extend it). Backspace and space also select the previous / next thumbnail.
File Browser Home, End, Page Up, Page Down Select the first / last thumbnail, scroll by a page.
File Browser Ctrl-a Select all.
File Browser Enter Open the selected image in the editor.
File Browser F3, F4 Open the previous / next image.
File Browser F2 Rename the selected files.
File Browser Shift-0 to Shift-5 Set the rank (Shift-0 to unrank).
File Browser Ctrl-Shift-0 to Ctrl-Shift-5 Set the color label (0 to remove it).
File Browser Delete, Shift-Delete Move to the trash / restore from the trash.
File Browser Ctrl-Shift-Delete Delete the selected files from the disk.
File Browser Ctrl-c, Ctrl-v, Ctrl-Shift-v Copy the processing profile / paste it / paste only some of its parameters (Ctrl-Insert and Shift-Insert work as well).
File Browser Ctrl-Shift-c, Ctrl-Shift-m Copy / move the selected files to another folder.
File Browser Ctrl-b (Ctrl-Shift-b for fast export) Put the selected images in the processing queue.
File Browser Ctrl-Shift-s Add the selected images to the session.
File Browser Ctrl-space Show the inspector popup.
File Browser (session) Ctrl-o, Ctrl-+, Ctrl–, Ctrl-s The session buttons (when they are shown): load a session from a file, add files to the session, remove the selected files from the session, save the session to a file.

Inspector

Where Shortcut Action
Inspector Shift-i Quick info.
Inspector h Show/hide the histogram.
Inspector c Toggle color management.
Inspector j Embedded preview image.
Inspector r Fast raw rendering with a linear tone curve.
Inspector f Fast raw rendering with a film-like tone curve.
Inspector s Fast raw rendering with a shadow boosting tone curve.
Inspector w Raw clipped pixels.
Inspector y Split view.
Inspector Tab Switch pane in the split view.
Inspector x Fit to window.
Inspector z Zoom to 100%.
Inspector Shift-f Toggle the focus mask.
File Browser (while the inspector is shown) 0 to 5, Ctrl-0 to Ctrl-5 Set the rank / the color label of the image shown in the inspector.
Inspector popup j, r, f, s, w Choose the rendering mode (same as above).

Queue

Where Shortcut Action
Queue Ctrl-s Start or stop processing the images in the queue.
Queue Ctrl-a Select all.
Queue Ctrl-e Open the selected image in the editor.
Queue Left, Right, Up, Down, Home, End Move the selection (add Shift to extend it).
Queue Ctrl-Home, Ctrl-End Move the selected images to the head / tail of the queue.
Queue Delete Remove the selected images from the queue.

Save As dialog

Where Shortcut Action
Save As Dialog Ctrl-Enter Save the file.