macOS Keyboard Shortcuts

Apple's macOS runs on roughly 15–17% of the world's desktop computers — concentrated in creative industries, software development, and education. macOS inherits decades of keyboard shortcuts from classic Mac OS (the Cmd key was standardized in 1984 on the original Macintosh, with ⌘ for Command, ⌥ for Option, and ⇧ for Shift, plus the iconic ⌃ for Control). Many of the most-used shortcuts (⌘C/X/V/Z, ⌘Tab to switch apps, ⌘Space for Spotlight) are 40 years old. This reference card groups the most-used 150+ shortcuts across 8 functional areas: System-wide, Menu & dialogs, Window management, Screenshots & screen recording, Finder, Text editing, Safari & browsers, Accessibility & input. Apple documents more than 300 shortcuts in total; this card picks the ones you'll use daily. How to use - Type any word in the search box (e.g. "Spotlight", "screenshot", "Finder") to filter rows. Search matches feature names and the key combo. - Click any row's Copy button to copy the shortcut — paste it into a tutorial, a chat, or a doc. - Click "Export PNG" for a printable wallpaper (2400×1140, 3 columns, A4 landscape). - Click "Export PDF" (or use your browser's print dialog) for a single-page A4 landscape PDF. Tips - ⌘Space (Spotlight) is the single most useful shortcut — type to launch apps, open files, calculate, look up words. - ⇧⌘3 / ⇧⌘4 / ⇧⌘5 are the screenshot trio: full screen, selection, and the toolbar (which adds recording + timer). - ⌥⌘V pastes with the destination app's formatting (Markdown in Mail, plain in Terminal) instead of the source's. - Most shortcuts work in any app, but a few (Finder, Mission Control, System Preferences) only work globally. Why only macOS here? Windows users have a parallel tool at /tools/windows-shortcuts. IDE shortcuts (VS Code, IntelliJ IDEA, etc.) live in their own tools. This separation keeps each tool focused and printable as one page.