Keyboard Shortcuts

Here is a list of some of the keyboard sortcuts you currently have at your disposal. These are the defaults. There is a way to customize these, but it is currently not intuitive. Basically you need to edit the accelrc file in your synfig settings directory.

Keystroke	Description
<Control>-A	Select all ducks
<Control>-C	Copy currently selected layer(s) and put them in the clipboard
<Control>-D	Deselect all layers
<Control>-G	Toggle grid show
<Control>-I	Import image
<Control>-L	Toggle grid snap
<Control>-N	New composition (since r1386)
<Control>-O	Open composition (since r1386)
<Alt>-O	Toggle onion skin (since r1525 - it was Control-O until r1386)
<Control>-P	Play the current animation in the WorkArea
<Control>-R	Redo
<Control>-S	Save
<Control>-V	Paste the layer(s) from the clipboard above the currently selected layer
<Control>-W	Closes the current animation document.
<Control>-X	Cut currently selected layer(s) and put them in the clipboard
<Control>-`	Toggle low/high-resolution (defaults to low resolution)
<Control>-0...9	Change the current rendering quality (lower is better, but 0==10)
<Alt>-1	Toggle display of "Position" ducks
<Alt>-2	Toggle display of "Vertex" ducks
<Alt>-3	Toggle display of "Tangent" ducks
<Alt>-4	Toggle display of "Radius" ducks
<Alt>-5	Toggle display of "Width" ducks (DEFAULTS TO OFF)
<Alt>-6	Toggle display of "Angle" ducks
<Control>-'-'	Zoom out of canvas (spacial zoom)
<Control>-'='	Zoom in on canvas (spacial zoom)
<Control>-<Shift>-Z	Zoom canvas to 100% (spacial zoom)
<Control>-'_'	Zoom out of timeline (temporal zoom)
<Control>-'+'	Zoom in on timeline (temporal zoom)
<Control>-','	Move backward one frame
<Control>-'.'	Move forward one frame (be careful - can step past the end of an animation; fixed in svn r452)
<Control>-'<'	Move backward one second
<Control>-'>'	Move forward one second
<Control>-'['	Move backward to previous keyframe
<Control>-']'	Move forward to next keyframe
Home	Jump to beginning of timeline (broken; fixed in svn r451)
End	Jump to end of timeline (broken; fixed in svn r451)
<Control>-'('	Decrease workarea pixel size
<Control>-')'	Increase workarea pixel size
<Control>-<Alt>-'('	Decrease 'amount' of selected layer
<Control>-<Alt>-')'	Increase 'amount' of selected layer
<Shift>-PgUp	Raise currently selected layers
<Shift>-PgDn	Lower currently selected layers
<Alt>-A	Select 'normal' tool
<Alt>-V	Select 'smooth move' tool (shortcut added in svn r548)
<Alt>-S	Select 'scale' tool (shortcut changed in svn r1985)
<Alt>-T	Select 'rotate' tool (shortcut changed in svn r1985)
<Alt>-M	Select 'mirror' tool (shortcut added in svn r548)
<Alt>-C	Select 'circle' tool (shortcut added in svn r548)
<Alt>-R	Select 'rectangle' tool (shortcut added in svn r548)
<Alt>-Q	Select 'star' tool (tool and shortcut added in svn r1983)
<Alt>-G	Select 'gradient' tool
<Alt>-P	Select 'polygon' tool (shortcut added in svn r548)
<Alt>-B	Select 'bline' tool
<Alt>-X	Select 'text' tool (tool and shortcut added in svn r1959)
<Alt>-F	Select 'fill' tool
<Alt>-E	Select 'eyedrop' tool
<Alt>-Z	Select 'zoom' tool
<Alt>-D	Select 'draw' tool (shortcut changed in svn r2009)
<Alt>-K	Select 'sketch' tool (shortcut added in svn r548)
<Alt>-W	Select 'width' tool (shortcut changed in svn r2009)
F8	Canvas Properties
F9	Render
F11	Preview
F12	Canvas Options (Grid size, etc.)
<Escape>	Stop (stop what? not sure...)
<Delete>	Deletes the currently selected canvas. (CAREFUL! There is currently a bug which makes this work in just about any context! ie: if you are editing a parameter and press the delete key, it will delete the layer! this can be easily undone, but just keep it in mind)
<Cursor Key>	Nudge the currently selected duck(s) one pixel in the given direction
<Shift>-<Cursor Key>	Nudge the currently selected duck(s) ten pixels in the given direction

Hotkeys Visual Guide

A good way to learn all this shorcuts is putting them in front of your eyes all the time. Because of that, we are working to bring you a beatifull "Hotkeys Visual Guide" that you can use as a poster.

Here is the first draft, in A4 version. Give us your feedback and comments.