How to unlock Photoshop’s monkey layer and banana tool Easter eggs

Colin Smith from Photoshop Cafe has shared some cool Photoshop tricks with us before. In his latest video, he’ll teach you how to unlock five “Easter eggs” Photoshop developers have hidden inside the software. If you’re a Photoshop CC user, open the software and discover these fun features.

1. Paint Symmetry

The first Easter egg can be a pretty useful feature if you use Photoshop for drawing.

Go to Preferences > Technology Previews and check the Paint Symmetry. You’ll see a little butterfly icon appear in the toolbar.

When you create a new document and click on the butterfly icon, choose “Vertical” you can paint symmetrically. It’s similar to those watercolor symmetry projects we did as kids.

You can also use this feature to draw kaleidoscopic shapes or mandalas. Go to the Paths panel, double-click on the “Vertical symmetry” and rename “Vertical” to “Radial” or “Mandala.” You’ll also see number 1 there, and you can change it to any value you want. This will be the number of symmetries.

2. The monkey layer

The next few tricks don’t really help you do anything in Photoshop, but they’re pretty fun. The first among them is the “monkey layer.”

Go to Window > Layer Comps. Now, go to the Layers panel, create a new layer and then create a layer comp. Double-click on it and name it “Layer Monkey 0.” This will give you a little monkey in the Layer Comp panel.

If you don’t want the monkey (why wouldn’t you, though?), you can rename the layer comp to anything else and it will go away.

3. The banana icon

If you decided to keep that monkey, you might want to grab a banana for it.

Click the ellipsis (…) icon in the toolbar. Hold the Shift key and click “Done.” Instead of the three dots, you’ll now have a banana. And if you want to reset it, click on this icon, hold Ctrl/Cmd and click “Done.”

4. The toast icons

Banana isn’t the only food item hiding in Photoshop CC. There’s a banana for the monkey, and you can have some toast. If you’re a Windows user, go to File > Preferences > Interface. It’s Photoshop > Preferences > Interface on Mac.

Now, hold Shift + Alt/Option and click on any of the Color Theme icons. They’ll turn into tiny toasts, and you can choose your “flavor” of Photoshop interface.

5. The coffee icons

Want to wash that toast down with some coffee? While you’re in the Interface menu, hold Ctrl/Cmd + Shift and click any Color Theme. Instead of toast, you’ll now have four icons of coffee.

If you want to toggle between toast and coffee, hold Ctrl/Cmd + Shift and click on the icon. And when you want to reset everything the way it was, hold Alt/Option + Shift and click on the icon.

There you have it, five interesting hidden tools waiting for you to discover them. Did you know about these Easter eggs hidden within Photoshop CC?

[5 HIDDEN PHOTOSHOP easter eggs you DIDN’T know about | photoshopCAFE]