• About
  • Write For Us
  • Contact
  • Top 50 Photography Blogs
  • Resources
  • Forum

IndustryDev

  • Design
    • Photoshop
    • Lightroom
    • Camera Raw
    • Bridge
  • Development
    • HTML
    • CSS
    • Javascript
    • PHP
    • Dev Tools
    • WordPress
  • Photography
  • Blogging
  • Technology
  • Inspiration
You are here: Home / Photoshop / Tips For Duplicating Shapes in Photoshop

Tips For Duplicating Shapes in Photoshop

January 11, 2020

This is such a great tip that I just had to share it here. If you’ve ever been faced with the task of duplicating a bunch of shapes and then arranging them in the file you’re working on in Photoshop, you know how time consuming that can be. What if there was a better way to complete these tasks than by recreating each one and positioning them by hand? Well, there is and I’m about to show you what I’m talking about.

Okay, I’ve already opened a file in Photoshop and I’ve set up some guides.

Guide Layout in Adobe Photoshop

My goal is to draw one shape in the upper left corner and then duplicate that shape across the rest of the image. Here’s the shape.

First Shape in Guide in Photoshop

Now, you know that for me to use the Rectangle Tool to draw 15 more shapes would be a real hassle, so I’m going to do this the easy way.

To duplicate this shape, I’ll hover my mouse over it and then I’ll hold down the Alt button on my keyboard, click and drag to the right. When I do that, the shape will automatically duplicate itself and I’ll be able to snap the duplicate into the next box over.

Now, if I wanted to lock the shape into a straight line as I drag, I could hold down the Shift key on my keyboard as well. So that would be Shift+Alt and then click and drag.

What’s really cool here is that I could just as easily duplicate multiple layers at a time. To duplicate these two shapes, I’ll select both of them in the Layers panel by holding down the Ctrl or Command buttons on my keyboard and then by simply selecting the layers. Then, to duplicate them and drag them, I’ll follow the same exact instructions I just gave above. Here’s the top row all filled in.

Row of Shapes in Photoshop


If I wanted to fill in the next row down, I could continue following the same instructions. I’ll select all four shape layers in the Layers panel and then hold down the Alt button on my keyboard, click and drag downward. I’ll do that three times to fill in all the boxes.

Filled in Shape Boxes

How cool is that? At this point, I could hide the guides by using the Ctrl+; keyboard shortcut and then I could use some clipping masks to transform the entire image.

I hope you can see the value in this type of shortcut. If you have any questions, please ask!

Related posts:

  1. Creating, Altering, Copying & Merging Shapes in Adobe Photoshop
  2. How to Create Shapes From Photos & Tips for Duplicating Layers in Adobe Photoshop
  3. How To Work with Shapes in Adobe Photoshop
  4. Can You Create Vector Shapes in Photoshop?
  5. How Can I Change the Shapes Settings in Photoshop?

Filed Under: Photoshop

What’s Next? Email Updates!

If you enjoyed reading this post, why not consider signing up to receive others like it by email? It's so easy and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect With Me

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021 · IndustryDev.com Web Design & Photography Blog · About · Write For Us · Contact · Privacy / Terms · Sitemap