I am searching for an explanation, in Adobe's official Photoshop vocabulary, of what the Alt + Delete + Backspace command does in the following sequence. I've searched Adobe and the net and cannot find it. Can anyone give me a reference for this?Open a black and white PNG file.Make the foreground color black.In the Channels panel, Ctrl-click on the RGB thumbnail.Select > Inverse.Create a new empty layer.Hold down Alt + Delete and then quickly press the Backspace key.The result is the creation in the empty layer of a transparency of the original file: white areas are made transparent; grey areas become semi-transparent; pure black areas remain black.

Inspiring

Question

Official description of Alt + Delete + Backspace command

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
February 19, 2018
2 replies
1741 views

I am searching for an explanation, in Adobe's official Photoshop vocabulary, of what the Alt + Delete + Backspace command does in the following sequence. I've searched Adobe and the net and cannot find it. Can anyone give me a reference for this?

Open a black and white PNG file.
Make the foreground color black.
In the Channels panel, Ctrl-click on the RGB thumbnail.
Select > Inverse.
Create a new empty layer.
Hold down Alt + Delete and then quickly press the Backspace key.
The result is the creation in the empty layer of a transparency of the original file: white areas are made transparent; grey areas become semi-transparent; pure black areas remain black.

This topic has been closed for replies.

gener7

Community Expert

Interesting technique.

I followed the instructions up to Select > Inverse.

I made the selected layer a floating layer and placed the transparent layer under it, selected it, then Opt/Alt Backspace to get the result.

Mainly because the Mac just has a Delete key.

gener7

Community Expert

I need to correct what I just stated for 2012 Macbook Pro laptops.

On the Mac, the Delete key acts like the Windows Backspace key where the character to the left is removed.

However pressing Fn + Delete on the Mac causes the Delete key to act like the Delete key in Windows where the character to the right is removed for each key combo press.

There are differences depending on model year and keyboard configuration, but the equivalent of the Windows Backspace and Delete keys are there.

Gene

DelphiZoa

Participating Frequently

From this Adobe help document: Default keyboard shortcuts in Adobe Photoshop:

Honestly, I'm not sure the second backspace is necessary, since Alt + Backspace fills the selection with the foreground color, which is, I believe, what you're after. I know there was a bug in CC2018 which necessitated the second backspace, but that was corrected in an update.

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