Top 12 Microsoft Paint 3D Keyboard Shortcuts That You Should Use

Keyboard shortcuts work in all Microsoft apps, including MS Paint. Why should the upgraded version of Paint, i.e., Paint 3D remain behind? Paint 3D is loaded with a bunch of cool features like 3D objects, creating custom stickers, magic select tool, and more. To use those functions quickly, one can take the help of keyboard shortcuts. Here you will find 12 Paint 3D keyboard shortcuts that you can use daily.

Keyboard shortcuts, undoubtedly, speed up our work. With the following shortcuts, you can perform actions ranging from basic functions like cut, copy, open, save images, etc., to enabling Paint 3D tools, grouping items, and more.

Let’s check the top keyboard shortcuts for the Microsoft Paint 3D app on Windows 10. We will first dive into the common Windows shortcuts that work in Paint 3D.

1. Basic Editing Shortcuts

All the basic control shortcuts work in Paint 3D as well. They can be used to perform the following editing tasks:

• Ctrl + C: Use it to copy both 2D and 3D elements on your image.
• Ctrl + X: Delete or move an element using this shortcut.
• Ctrl + V: Paste the copied item to duplicate an item. Alternatively, if you have an image or text in your Windows clipboard from a different app, you can paste it on your picture.
• Ctrl + A: Select all 3D elements on your canvas using this command.
• Ctrl + Z: Undo an action.
• Ctrl + Y: Redo an action.

Pro Tip: Check out keyboard shortcuts that work with MS Paint.

2. Text Formatting Shortcuts

To customize your text in Paint 3D, you can apply text formatting to it using the following commands:

• Ctrl + B: Bold text
• Ctrl + U: Add underline to your text
• Ctrl + I: Italicize your text

3. File Shortcuts

All the commonly used file shortcuts work in Paint 3D as well. Here’s a recap:

• Ctrl + N: Create a new picture
• Ctrl + O: Open an existing picture from your computer
• Ctrl + P: Print 2D image
• Ctrl + S: Save image
• Ctrl + Shift + S: Open the Save as dialog box to save image in a different format

4. Enable Eyedropper Tool

Paint 3D offers a great collection of colors. You can add more using the color palette too. If you want to select a color from your image itself, the eyedropper tool comes to the rescue. Pressing the I button on the keyboard will activate the tool. Then move your mouse pointer to the color that you want to select and click once. The color will be ready to use for your brushes.

Tip: Remember the shortcut I with the name of the tool – eyedropper.

5. Minimize Side Menu

Another one-key shortcut is for closing or expanding the sidebar on the right side of Paint 3D. If you need more space for your canvas, closing the right bar comes handy. To minimize it, press the M key on your keyboard. Press it again to expand it.

6. Show Canvas Properties

The canvas is the foundation of your image in Paint 3D. It helps when you are dealing with transparent or PNG pages. You can make your image transparent in Paint 3D by enabling the Transparent canvas option present under Canvas properties. Resize, rotate, and flip are some other functions available under Canvas properties.

To open Canvas properties, use Ctrl + E keyboard shortcut.

You can go a step ahead and select canvas using Ctrl + W shortcut. To hide or show canvas, use Ctrl + Shift + W keyboard shortcut.

7. Activate Crop Tool

Do you crop a lot of pictures? Then you will love the crop tool keyboard shortcut. Press Ctrl + Shift + X to activate the tool and start cropping.

Pro Tip: Find out how to crop an image in a circle shape in Paint 3D.

8. Switch Between 2D and 3D View

Users who use the 3D functionality of Paint 3D will be happy to hear about this keyboard shortcut. Press Ctrl + 3 on your keyboard to switch between 2D and 3D view instantly. Use Ctrl + Shift + E keyboard shortcut to show or hide the 3D perspective.

9. Group and Ungroup Items

If you want to move or perform some other action on multiple items, you should group them. There are multiple ways to group elements on your canvas.

Firstly, press the Ctrl key and left-click once on the first element. With the Ctrl key pressed, click on other elements to select them. Secondly, use Ctrl + G and Ctrl + Shift + G to a group and ungroup objects, respectively.

10. Zoom

There are several ways to zoom in and out of the picture in Paint 3D. Use PgUp or Ctrl + PgUp keyboard shortcut to zoom in. To zoom out in an image, use PgDn or Ctrl + PgDn keyboard shortcuts.

Alternatively, you can use your mouse scroll wheel as well to zoom in and out. If scrolling the mouse wheel doesn’t work, keep the Ctrl key pressed while scrolling.

Pro Tip: To reset zoom, use Ctrl + 0 keyboard shortcut and to reset view, press the Home key.

11. Change Brush Size

Very few apps let you customize the brush size using keyboard shortcuts. Fortunately, Paint 3D is one of them. Use Ctrl + Minus(-) or Ctrl + [ to decrease brush size. For increasing brush size, use Ctrl + Plus (+) or Ctrl + ]

12. Take a Screenshot

In Paint 3D, you can take a screenshot of your canvas without having the image’s menus and toolbars. Use the Ctrl + Shift + C keyboard shortcut to capture a screenshot of your Paint 3D canvas.

Mouse or Keyboard

Some of the actions mentioned above can be accessed from the right-click or the context menu as well. For instance, screenshot, undo and redo, canvas properties. But if you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, check the full collection of Paint 3D shortcuts from the official Microsoft website.

Next up: Want to blur your images on a Windows PC? Find out how to use Paint 3D to blur pictures by clicking ont he next article’s link.