Keyboard shortcuts for both hands

Watch an annotation session and the cursor tells only half the story. The other hand is making the decisions.

One hand points at the image. The other rests near A and D, ready to move between files, start a shape, fix a label, or hide every shape to see the image underneath. Once those movements become familiar, you spend less time looking for controls and more time looking at the image.

You do not need to memorize a wall of shortcuts. Start with one loop.

Learn one review loop#

1. Press Ctrl+U to open an image directory, then Ctrl+F to fit the first image to the window.
2. Inspect the image. Press T when you need to hide every shape and check the pixels underneath.
3. Fix what is wrong. Ctrl+J puts you in edit mode. Select a shape, then Ctrl+E edits its label, the arrow keys move it five pixels, and Delete removes it.
4. Press D for the next image. Press A if you need to go back.

On macOS, read Ctrl as Cmd. The full key mapping is in the reference below.

Auto-save is on by default, so each edit is written before you move on. Your right hand can stay on the mouse while your left handles the repeated decisions.

This is the part worth practicing. Everything else can wait until a specific action sends you looking for it.

Two shortcuts worth a closer look#

Copy once or keep copying

D opens the next image. Ctrl+Shift+D opens it and carries the current annotations with you. The same distinction applies in reverse with A and Ctrl+Shift+A.

That modified shortcut is useful when two neighboring frames are similar. For a whole run of related images, Ctrl+P turns on Keep Previous Annotation until you turn it off again.

Undo knows which mode you are in

While drawing, Ctrl+Z removes the last point you placed. In edit mode, it undoes the last shape addition or edit. A bad polygon vertex costs one keystroke, not the whole shape.

Choose what deserves a binding#

Polygon and rectangle creation have defaults: Ctrl+N and Ctrl+R. Oriented rectangle, circle, line, point, and linestrip creation are unbound until you assign them.

Change any of them under shortcuts in the default configuration. Enter, Esc, the arrow keys, the Settings shortcut, and the mouse combinations are fixed.

Learn the defaults your own work uses. A polygon annotator needs Ctrl+N; a bounding-box review pass may never press it. The useful set is the one your hands stop searching for.

The starter guide covers the full annotation flow.

Printable quick reference#

Every default binding, plus the fixed app and canvas controls.

Reading these keys on macOS

So Ctrl+Delete is Cmd+Fn+Delete. Two bindings do not follow the mapping and are written out in full below: the Settings shortcut, and Meta+H for removing a point.

Files and navigation

Ctrl+Delete removes the annotation file after confirmation. It does not delete the image.

Drawing

Oriented rectangle, circle, line, point, and linestrip creation have configurable entries but no default key binding. AI-Points and AI-Box do not have configurable shortcut entries.

Editing

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