4 ways to customise Photoshop and streamline your creativity

Customising Photoshop makes life sooo much easier

Customising Photoshop for your personal convenience isn’t just a matter of preference—it’s a transformative approach that streamlines your photography and creative process.

Photoshop is an incredibly powerful tool with an extensive array of features. But navigating its extensive menus, toolbars, and panels can interrupt your flow.

Tailoring the interface to suit your unique ways of working eliminates unnecessary mouse movements and clicks. It enables you to immerse yourself more fully in your art by reducing the cognitive friction involved in navigating Photoshop’s out-of-the-box massive range of functionality. Personalisation turns Photoshop from a software application into a bespoke creative environment tailored to your vision and methods.

The 4 most important customisations

For people new to Photoshop:

1. Keyboard shortcuts

2. Actions

3. Custom workspaces

For intermediate and advanced Photoshop users:

4. Custom panel plug-ins

If you’re already experienced with Photoshop keyboard shortcuts, actions, and custom workspaces, then skip right down to the section below that deals with custom panel plug-ins. They fly under the radar but can really streamline your practice.

But those custom panel plug-ins only deliver the best benefit after you’ve worked with the other customisation areas. So if you’re not an expert, don’t skip ahead, read on.

First I’ll explain why customising Photoshop delivers really compelling benefits for phtographers. Then I’ll share some best practices. Finally I’ll give step-by-step instructions for each of those 4 types of Photoshop customisation.

Why photographers should customise Photoshop

Photographers often customize Photoshop in ways that profoundly enhance their efficiency and artistic expression. We often find that our artistry doesn’t end with the click of the shutter—in many ways, it’s just beginning. The digital darkroom is a space where vision meets craftsmanship, and mastering the tools at your disposal—both built-in and customised—enriches your process and your results.

4 ways to customise Photoshop to make it your own

1. Keyboard shortcuts

Learning and using keyboard shortcuts is an essential skill for any photographer. Assigning keyboard shortcuts to tools and menu items you use frequently bypasses more time-consuming hunting with the mouse. Keyboard shortcuts make Photoshop much more efficient and effective.

Since keyboard shortcuts are one of the most important customisations in Photoshop—probably the most important—I’ve listed some of the reasons keyboard shortcuts earn your attention further down in this article.

Also, in case you don’t know how to create and manage your own keyboard shortcuts, you’ll find step-by-step instructions here.

The most important keyboard shortcut by far is the save shortcut: CMD+s (Mac) / CTRL+s (Windows). It’s the same across almost all applications, so it should be second nature anyway. Use it frequently, don’t rely on Photoshop’s automatic background saves.

2. Actions, droplets, and scripts

Actions are a significant aspect of customization among photographers.

Actions allow you to record a sequence of editing steps—such as applying filters, adjusting levels, or resizing images—and then replay them with a single click. This is incredibly valuable for repetitive tasks or when applying a consistent style across multiple images. Bonus: actions are beginner-friendly, simple to create and easy to manage.

You can also create “droplets”: collections of actions, like a mini-external program. Photoshop droplets perform actions or action sets on individual files, folders, or entire folder structures without actually opening the files. Droplets are powerful but advanced, and you should only use them once you’re fully familiar with how Photoshop works.

Scripts are more advanced automations than actions, and involve writing code to perform tasks in Photoshop. They’re powerful, but only if you’re comfortable programming in a language like JavaScript, AppleScript (for macOS), or VBScript (for Windows).

3. Custom workspaces

One common practice is creating custom workspaces. By arranging panels, toolbars, and menus to prioritize the things they use most frequently, photographers ease their editing process. For instance, a portrait photographer might set up a workspace that makes it quicker to reach retouching tools, layers, and colour correction panels, while minimising or hiding functions that are less relevant to their work, like text tools.

Also, decluttering your workspace speeds up the editing process and also reduces visual distractions, helping to maintain focus.

You can set up different workspaces for different tasks and switch between them as you wish.

Rearranging the panels you work with and saving the setup as a custom workspace is the easiest customisation approach: no coding, no complicated dialogs:

A custom workspace also includes any customisations you make to menus, keystrokes, and toolbars.

In addition to using custom workspaces to organise panels, menus, actions, toolbars, and more, the Preferences dialog has two sections where you can adjust interface and workspace options:

The combination of creating custom workspaces and adjusting Photoshop’s overall preferences makes your Photoshop life so much easier.

4. Custom panel plug-ins

Custom panels collect your most-used adjustments, filters, actions, plug-ins and any other Photoshop feature or function in one place. They’re mouse oriented and visual so they enable quick access to things you do frequently. Depending on the plug-in, you can have as many panel setups as you want.

You need a plug-in to create custom panels in Photoshop. Adobe used to offer a “configurator” but that’s no longer available.

Several custom panel plug-ins are available, both free and paid.

For example, the Custom Panel plug-in by Mantas Kačinskas is completely customisable, and offers optional multiple panels. They can be as simple or elaborate as you want:

Mantas’ plug-in is available from his website. He offers several versions, both free and paid.

I’ve written a review of the Custom Panel plug-in: you can read it here.

You’ll find results for “custom panel” when you search for plug-ins via the Adobe Creative Cloud app, but they aren’t full-featured customisable panels, just additional task-specific panels.

A couple of other custom panel plug-in options are sold outside of the Adobe marketplace.

Configurator Reloaded 2 by Thomas Zagler is an easy to configure customisable panel plug-in for Photoshop. It’s not free, but he offers a fully functional trial version (it resets to defaults if you restart the plug-in or close Photoshop). This plug-in is much less customisable than the Custom Panel plug-in by Mantas Kačinskas. And Configurator Reloaded 2 lacks a lot of functionality compared to the Custom Panel plug-in. As such, the Custom Panel plug-in delivers a lot better value than Configurator Reloaded 2.

Then there’s MyPanel by Blake Rudis. Not recommended: it only rearranges your Actions panel, and doesn’t do anything else. It’s absurdly priced at USD147 ( as of 2025). And I can’t get beyond the tacky hard-sell used-car-salesman approach Rudis takes in everything he does:

That’s a blatantly false claim: it’s not “only limited to your imagination”, it’s limited to rearranging Photoshop actions only.

Beware of anyone who tries so hard to deceive you into buying something that’s basic and overpriced.

Best practices around customising Photoshop

Best practices when customising Photoshop focus on intentionality and flexibility:

• Consider your workflow: Identify the things you rely on most and think about how you can arrange them to your best advantage.

• Balance accessibility and simplicity: It’s tempting to have everything at your fingertips, but a cluttered interface is counterproductive because it increases the time to find what you need.

• Regularly re-evaluate your customizations: As your skills develop and your workflow evolves, what worked for you a year ago might not be optimal today.

• Be mindful: Ensure that new customisations don’t conflict with existing ones. And they should be intuitive enough to remember easily.

• Back up your customisations: Save your customisations. Backups safeguard your customisations against software updates or hardware changes, and allow you to copy your personalized environment wherever you go.

• Stay curious and open to learning: Explore new features, plug-ins, extensions, and workflows to discover new/different/easier ways to work.

• Engage with the Photoshop community: Forums, tutorials, and workshops offer fresh insights and innovative ways to tailor Photoshop to your needs.

How to create custom workspaces, actions, keyboard shortcuts, and panels

Creating custom workspaces

Switch Between Workspaces

1. To switch between custom workspaces, go to Window > Workspace and select the one you want from the list.
2. Photoshop will load your saved panel layout and apply your custom keyboard shortcuts.

Creating, editing, saving, and sharing actions in Photoshop

How to create an action in Photoshop

1. Open the Actions panel
   • If you don’t see it, go to Window > Actions to open it.
2. Create a new Action Set (optional but helpful)
   • To keep things organized, you might want to create a new action set (think of it as a folder to contain related actions).
     • Click the folder icon at the bottom of the Actions panel.
     • Name your Action Set something like “My Custom Actions” and hit OK.
3. Start recording a new action
   • Click the Create New Action button (it looks like a square with a plus sign) at the bottom of the Actions panel.
   • Name your action descriptively, like “Vintage Effect”.
   • Select the action set where you want to save it.
   • Optional: assign a function key (like F2, F3) for a keyboard shortcut and pick a colour to highlight it.
   • Click Record to start recording your steps.
4. Perform the steps you want to automate
   • Be precise—Photoshop records each step exactly as you perform it. For example:
     • Resize the image: Go to Image > Image Size, set your dimensions, and click OK.
     • Adjust levels: Navigate to Image > Adjustments > Levels, make changes, and hit OK.
     • Apply filters: Choose a filter from the Filter menu, adjust settings, and apply.
     • Add layers or text: Create new layers, add text, or any other edits.
5. Stop recording
   • Go back to the Actions panel.
   • Click the Stop button (the square icon) at the bottom.
   • Your action is now saved and ready to use!
6. Use your new action
   • Open another image or project where you want to apply the action.
   • In the Actions panel, select your action.
   • Click the Play button (the triangle icon) at the bottom.
   • Watch as Photoshop automates the steps for you.

Editing actions

If you want to modify an action, select the action and expand it by clicking on the > icon. You can reorder steps, double-click to change settings, or delete steps entirely. Unfortunately, the things you can edit in an action are limited. You may need to re-record if you run into a roadblock.

Saving and sharing actions

To save your actions as an external file, click on the menu icon in the Actions panel. Choose Save Actions to create an .atn file, which you can back up or share with others. Backing up is something you should do with any customisation or file.

Creating and managing keyboard shortcuts

Why you should use keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts save time, effort, and are healthier for your arm too!

Before creating your own custom keyboard shortcuts, you should familiarise yourself with Photoshop’s built-in keyboard shortcuts. Knowing the built-in shortcuts provides a strong foundation and can save you duplicated effort if what you want is already there. Those defaults are often designed based on logical groupings and ergonomic considerations, making them easier to learn and remember. They’re consistent across different installations of Photoshop, which is advantageous if you work on multiple devices or in various environments.

Investing effort in keyboard shortcuts pays off big time

Creating your own keyboard shortcuts and learning the built-in ones is time and effort very well spent. It’s like a pianist knowing their instrument so intimately that their fingers glide over the keys without conscious thought, allowing their artristry to flow into the music. Similarly, when photographers internalise Photoshop’s shortcuts and create their own, they bypass the mechanics of editing and focus directly into their creative impulses.

Keyboard shortcuts foster efficiency

Keyboard shortcuts dramatically speed up your workflow. Instead of interrupting your focus to navigate through menus and submenus, simple key combinations can execute commands instantly. That keeps you in the creative zone, maintaining the momentum that’s vital for artistic expression.

Shortcuts enable a more masterful connection with Photoshop

Familiarising yourself with Photoshop’s built-in shortcuts exposes you to features and functions you might not have discovered otherwise.

Relying on keyboard shortcuts gets easier and more habitual as you develop muscle memory. Your fingers begin to remember the motions naturally. This unconscious competence means you can focus entirely on the image rather than the software. Over time, muscle memory builds confidence and reduces cognitive load, freeing up mental resources for creative decision-making.

As you learn the shortcuts, you explore Photoshop’s capabilities, discovering things that can elevate your work. Intimacy with your tools allows for experimentation and spontaneity, enabling you to try out ideas on the fly without breaking your concentration.

Reduce physical strain

Relying heavily on mouse movements and clicks can lead to repetitive stress injuries over time. Keyboard shortcuts minimize the need for extensive mouse use, for a more ergonomic workflow. That’s especially important for professionals who spend hours editing.

Embracing keyboard shortcuts prepares you professionally

Professional photographers and digital artists rely on keyboard shortcuts. Knowing your shortcuts demonstrates care about your craft. Also, keyboard proficiencycan enhance collaboration. Whether you’re working in a team, teaching others, or sharing techniques, a common language of shortcuts facilitates smoother communication and knowledge exchange.

How to create keyboard shortcuts

1. Open the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog.
   • In the Photoshop main menu choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts…. You can also press Alt + Shift + Ctrl + K (Windows) or Option + Shift + Command + K (Mac) to open the dialog.
2. Choose the shortcut category.
   • In the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box you’ll see a section labeled Shortcuts For. Choose what you want to customize:
     • Application menus: Commands found in the menus like File, Edit, Image, Layer, etc.
     • Panel menus: Options within panels like Layers, Paths, Brushes, etc.
     • Tools: The tools from the toolbar like Brush Tool, Lasso Tool, Move Tool, etc.
     • Taskspaces: Select and Mask, Content-Aware Fill, and Neural Filters.
   • Select the category that contains the command or tool you want to assign a shortcut to. For example, if you want to assign a shortcut to the Brush Tool, choose Tools.
3. Find and select what you want to assign a shortcut to.
   • Expand the category: Click the > icon next to a category to reveal its contents.
   • Locate your item: Scroll through the list to find the specific command you want. Example: to customize the Brush Tool, find Brush Tool under Tool Panel Command.
4. Assign your custom shortcut.
   • Click on the Shortcut field: Click on the existing shortcut or the empty space if there’s none.
   • Enter your shortcut: Press the key combination you want to assign. You can use combinations of Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac), Alt/Option, Shift, and any other key.
   • Important: If the shortcut you choose is already in use, Photoshop will alert you with a warning message. You can still proceed, but be aware that it will override the existing shortcut.
5. Accept your changes as you go along.
   • After entering your shortcut, click the Accept button.
   • Repeat as needed: If you have more shortcuts to set up, repeat Steps 3, 4, and 5 for each one.
6. Save your custom shortcuts.
   • Click Save at the top of the dialog box.
   • Give it a memorable name like “My Custom Shortcuts”.
   • Click Save again to store your custom shortcuts.

What do you think?

Please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts you want to share in the comments below.

FAQ

Why is it important to customise Photoshop?

Customizing Photoshop tailors the workspace to your specific needs, enhancing both efficiency and comfort. Setting up tools, panels, and shortcuts that align with your workflow minimises distractions and streamlines your editing process. Customisation builds a more intuitive environment that boosts creativity and productivity.

How does customising Photoshop improve creativity?

Customising Photoshop improves creativity by streamlining your workflow. When your essential tools and panels are within easy reach, you reduce the time spent searching through menus. Assigning keyboard shortcuts to frequent actions accelerates editing tasks. A decluttered, organised workspace minimizes distractions, allowing you to focus more on your work and less on the software.

What are the 4 main ways to customise Photoshop?

People new to Photoshop need to learn and use keyboard shortcuts (an essential Photoshop skill), actions (no coding required!), and creating custom workspaces (so you can switch among personalised workspaces depending on what you’re doing). Intermediate and advanced Photoshop users will benefit from custom panel plug-ins that allow you to gather your most-used features in one place, just a click away.

Why should I use keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop?

Using keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop lets you perform actions quickly without trudging through menus. Shortcuts streamline your workflow, accelerating your editing process. All professionals use them. Plus, shortcuts reduce repetitive mouse use, minimizing physical strain.

How can I automate tasks in Photoshop?

Photoshop actions will make your life a whole lot easier if you find yourself doing the same thing over and over, photo to photo. With actions, you record a series of steps and play them back with a single click—no coding required! It’s a good investment of time and effort that automates repetitive tasks and fosters consistency in your work.

Why do I need a custom workspace in Photoshop?

Custom workspaces allow you to tailor the Photoshop interface to your specific needs. You can arrange panels, tools, and menus based on what you’re working on, whether it’s portraits, architectural photography, landscapes, whatever. Switching between dedicated workspaces keeps everything you need right at your fingertips whatever you’re working on.

How will I benefit from a custom panel Photoshop plug-in?

Custom panel plug-ins consolidate your most-used features into one accessible location. For seasoned users tackling complex projects, this means less digging through menus and more focus on creativity. It’s about optimizing your environment to work smarter, not harder.

What are the best practices for customizing Photoshop?

Identify your most-used tools and features. Organise them mindfully and prominently in your workspace. Keep the interface clean by hiding unnecessary panels and tools to reduce clutter. Regularly review and update your customisations to reflect changes in your workflow. Back up your settings so they can be restored or transferred as needed.