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In Photoshop, I know these keyboard shortcuts exist for the move tool:

Arrow key: Move a layer by one pixel

Arrow key + Shift: Move a layer by ten pixels

But can I use the keyboard to move layers by more than ten pixels at a time? I have a large canvas and moving layers ten pixels at a time is too sluggish.

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    There is no setting for that. I wonder if you could just use Ctrl+T and make sure the triangle between X and Y is active and then enter a value that would move the layer approximately or exactly where you want it? There are ways you could make that happen more or less exactly the way you want it, but I'm not sure if it's worth it.
    – Joonas
    Jul 6, 2017 at 12:24
  • @Joonas oh I think I misread your comment, never mind
    – Luciano
    Jul 6, 2017 at 12:40

3 Answers 3

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To answer my own question, just now I wrote a script that moves the active layer left by 500 pixels:

app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;  
app.activeDocument.activeLayer.translate(500, 0);
app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.INCHES;  

I then created three more scripts that move the active layer right, up and down. Then I assigned keyboard shortcuts to the scripts:

Ctrl + Shift + J: Move layer 500 pixels to the left
Ctrl + Shift + L: Move layer 500 pixels to the right
Ctrl + Shift + I: Move layer 500 pixels to the up
Ctrl + Shift + K: Move layer 500 pixels to the down

By the way, I wanted to use arrow keys instead, like this:

Ctrl + Shift + Left: Move layer 500 pixels to the left

But Photoshop won't let me because it claims the arrow keys can't be used as shortcuts. Bah.

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  • I was thinking, that perhaps you could override that with Karabiner on Mac (Before Sierra. On Sierra, maybe Alfred or Keyboard Maestro) or Auto Hotkey on Windows. So basically what you are doing already, but use those to set like ctrl+alt+shift+arrow key to open the script file in Photoshop. The answer works I Photoshop as well, if modified a bit. Maybe try that.
    – Joonas
    Jul 7, 2017 at 22:13
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AFAIK that's the way Photoshop works, you can only nudge 1 or 10px at a time.

Alternatively you can use Transform ( + T) to add precise coordinates in the X / Y directions, then you don't need to nudge several times.

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Create an ACTION, record it and assign a keyboard key, then move those pixels all day. No pixel is safe.. :)

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    Paul, if you end up considering this, I'd recommend making an action of the free transform move, because that way you can record a move for any pixel value, like for example 40px. Also if the actions were wrapped in a script (one way or another), there'd be more freedom in terms of the shortcut keys to trigger the action.
    – Joonas
    Jul 6, 2017 at 18:15

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