62 KiB
standard-themes: Like the default theme but more consistent
This manual, written by Protesilaos Stavrou, describes the Emacs package
called standard-themes
, and provides every other piece of information
pertinent to it.
The documentation furnished herein corresponds to stable version {{{stable-version}}}, released on {{{release-date}}}. Any reference to a newer feature which does not yet form part of the latest tagged commit, is explicitly marked as such.
Current development target is {{{development-version}}}.
- Package name (GNU ELPA):
standard-themes
- Official manual: <https://protesilaos.com/emacs/standard-themes>
-
Git repo on SourceHut: <https://git.sr.ht/~protesilaos/standard-themes>
-
Mirrors:
-
- Mailing list: <https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/standard-themes>
- Backronym: Standard Themes Are Not Derivatives but the Affectionately Reimagined Default … themes.
If you are viewing the README.org version of this file, please note that the GNU ELPA machinery automatically generates an Info manual out of it.
- COPYING
- About the Standard themes
- Installation
- Sample configuration
- Customization options
- Loading a theme
- Preview theme colors
- Use colors from the active Standard theme
- Do-It-Yourself customizations
- Faces defined by the Standard themes
- Supported packages or face groups
- GNU Free Documentation License
- Indices
COPYING
Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being “A GNU Manual,” and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”
(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and modify this GNU manual.”
About the Standard themes
The standard-themes
are a pair of light and dark themes for GNU
Emacs. They emulate the out-of-the-box looks of Emacs (which
technically do NOT constitute a theme) while bringing to them thematic
consistency, customizability, and extensibility.
Installation
GNU ELPA package
The package is available as standard-themes
. Simply do:
M-x package-refresh-contents M-x package-install
And search for it.
GNU ELPA provides the latest stable release. Those who prefer to follow the development process in order to report bugs or suggest changes, can use the version of the package from the GNU-devel ELPA archive. Read: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-05-13-emacs-elpa-devel/.
Manual installation
Assuming your Emacs files are found in ~/.emacs.d/
, execute the
following commands in a shell prompt:
cd ~/.emacs.d
# Create a directory for manually-installed packages
mkdir manual-packages
# Go to the new directory
cd manual-packages
# Clone this repo, naming it "standard-themes"
git clone https://git.sr.ht/~protesilaos/standard-themes standard-themes
Finally, in your init.el
(or equivalent) evaluate this:
;; Make Elisp files in that directory available to the user.
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/manual-packages/standard-themes")
Everything is in place to set up the package.
Sample configuration
;; Make customisations that affect Emacs faces BEFORE loading a theme
;; (any change needs a theme re-load to take effect).
(require 'standard-themes)
;; Read the doc string of each of those user options. These are some
;; sample values.
(setq standard-themes-bold-constructs t
standard-themes-italic-constructs t
standard-themes-mixed-fonts t
standard-themes-variable-pitch-ui t
standard-themes-mode-line-accented t
;; Accepts a symbol value:
standard-themes-fringes 'subtle
;; The following accept lists of properties
standard-themes-links '(neutral-underline)
standard-themes-region '(no-extend neutral intense)
standard-themes-prompts '(bold italic)
;; more complex alist to set weight, height, and optional
;; `variable-pitch' per heading level (t is for any level not
;; specified):
standard-themes-headings
'((0 . (variable-pitch light 1.9))
(1 . (variable-pitch light 1.8))
(2 . (variable-pitch light 1.7))
(3 . (variable-pitch semilight 1.6))
(4 . (variable-pitch semilight 1.5))
(5 . (variable-pitch 1.4))
(6 . (variable-pitch 1.3))
(7 . (variable-pitch 1.2))
(t . (variable-pitch 1.1))))
;; Disable all other themes to avoid awkward blending:
(mapc #'disable-theme custom-enabled-themes)
(load-theme 'standard-light :no-confirm)
(define-key global-map (kbd "<f5>") #'standard-themes-toggle)
Customization options
The standard-themes
provide user options which tweak secondary
aspects of the theme. All customizations need to be evaluated before
loading a theme. Any change after the theme has been loaded require a
re-load (Loading a theme).
Enable mixed fonts
The user option standard-themes-mixed-fonts
controls whether strictly
spacing-sensitive constructs inherit from fixed-pitch
(a monospaced
font family).
By default (a nil
value for this user option) no face inherits from
fixed-pitch
: they all use the default font family, regardless of
whether it is monospaced or not.
When standard-themes-mixed-fonts
is set to a non-nil
value, faces
such as for Org tables, inline code, code blocks, and the like, are
rendered in a monospaced font at all times. The user can thus set
their default font family to a proportionately spaced font without
worrying about breaking the alignment of relevant elements, or if they
simply prefer the aesthetics of mixed mono and proportionately spaced
font families.
A temporary switch to a proportionately spaced font (known in Emacs as
variable-pitch
) can be enabled in the current buffer with the
activation of the built-in variable-pitch-mode
.
To get consistent typography, the user may need to edit the font
family of the fixed-pitch
and variable-pitch
faces. The
fontaine
package on GNU ELPA (by Protesilaos) can be helpful in this
regard.
Accented mode line
The user option standard-themes-mode-line-accented
handles the
background color of the active mode line. When the value is nil
,
the color is gray, while non-nil
uses an accent value.
UI typeface
The user option standard-themes-variable-pitch-ui
controls whether
the elements of the User Interface (UI) use a proportionately spaced
font. By default (a nil
value), all UI elements use the default
font family. When this user option is set to a non-nil
value, all
UI elements will inherit the face variable-pitch
, thus rendering
them in a proportionately spaced font.
In this context, the UI elements are:
header-line
mode-line
(active and inactive)tab-bar-mode
tab-line-mode
To get consistent typography, the user may need to edit the font
family of the fixed-pitch
and variable-pitch
faces. The
fontaine
package on GNU ELPA (by Protesilaos) can be helpful in this
regard.
Bold constructs
The user option standard-themes-bold-constructs
determines whether
select faces will inherit the bold
face. When the value is
non-nil
, a bold weight is applied to code constructs. This affects
keywords, builtins, and a few other elements.
Italic constructs
The user option standard-themes-italic-constructs
determines whether
select faces will inherit the italic
face. When the value is
non-nil
, an italic style is applied to code constructs. This
affects comments, doc strings, and a few other minor elements.
Fringe visibility
The user option standard-themes-fringes
controls the visibility and
intensity of the fringes. With regular Emacs settings "Fringe" is a
small surface area to either side of the Emacs window: it is where
certain indicators are displayed, such as continuation lines.
When the value is nil
, do not apply a distinct background color.
With a value of subtle
, use a gray background color that is visible
yet close to the main background color. This is the default style.
With intense
, use a more pronounced gray background color.
Link style
The user option standard-themes-links
controls the style of links.
The value is a list of properties, each designated by a symbol. The
default (a nil
value or an empty list) is a prominent text color,
typically blue, with an underline of the same color.
For the style of the underline, a neutral-underline
property
turns the color of the line into a subtle gray, while the
no-underline
property removes the line altogether. If both of
those are set, the latter takes precedence.
For text coloration, a faint
property desaturates the color of
the text and the underline, unless the underline is affected by
the aforementioned properties.
A bold
property applies a heavy typographic weight to the text
of the link.
An italic
property adds a slant to the link's text (italic or
oblique forms, depending on the typeface).
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(faint)
(no-underline faint)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq standard-themes-links '(neutral-underline faint))
The placement of the underline, meaning its proximity to the
text, is controlled by x-use-underline-position-properties
,
x-underline-at-descent-line
, underline-minimum-offset
.
Please refer to their documentation strings.
Option for command prompts
The user option standard-themes-prompts
controls the style of all
prompts, such as those of the minibuffer and REPLs.
The value is a list of properties, each designated by a symbol. The
default (a nil
value or an empty list) means to only use an accented
foreground color.
The property background
applies a background color to the prompt's
text and adjusts the foreground accordingly.
The property bold
makes the text use a bold typographic weight.
Similarly, italic
adds a slant to the font's forms (italic or
oblique forms, depending on the typeface).
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(background)
(bold italic)
(background bold italic)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq standard-themes-prompts '(background bold))
Option for headings
The user option standard-themes-headings
provides support for individual
heading styles for levels 0 through 8.
This is an alist that accepts a (KEY . LIST-OF-VALUES)
combination.
The KEY
is either a number, representing the heading's level (0-8)
or t
, which pertains to the fallback style. The fallback applies to
all heading levels that are not customized.
Level 0 is a special heading: it is used for what counts as a document
title or equivalent, such as the #+TITLE
construct we find in Org
files. Levels 1-8 are regular headings.
The list of values covers symbols that refer to properties, as described below. Here is a complete sample, followed by a presentation of all available properties:
(setq standard-themes-headings
'((1 . (light variable-pitch 1.5))
(2 . (regular 1.3))
(3 . (1.1))
(t . (variable-pitch))))
By default (a nil
value for this variable), all headings have a normal
typographic weight, a font family that is the same as the default
face
(typically monospaced), and a height that is equal to the default
face's height.
- A
variable-pitch
property changes the font family of the heading to that of thevariable-pitch
face (normally a proportionately spaced typeface). Also check thefontaine
package (by Protesilaos) for tweaking fonts via faces. - The symbol of a weight attribute adjusts the font of the heading
accordingly, such as
light
,semibold
, etc. Valid symbols are defined in the variablestandard-themes-weights
. The absence of a weight means that no distinct weight will be used. - A number, expressed as a floating point (e.g. 1.5), adjusts the
height of the heading to that many times the base font size. The
default height is the same as 1.0, though it need not be explicitly
stated. Instead of a floating point, an acceptable value can be in
the form of a cons cell like
(height . FLOAT)
or(height FLOAT)
, whereFLOAT
is the given number.
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(semibold)
(variable-pitch semibold)
(variable-pitch semibold 1.3)
(variable-pitch semibold (height 1.3)) ; same as above
(variable-pitch semibold (height . 1.3)) ; same as above
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq standard-themes-headings
'((1 . (light variable-pitch 1.5))
(2 . (regular 1.3))
(3 . (1.1))
(t . (variable-pitch))))
When defining the styles per heading level, it is possible to
pass a non-nil
value (t) instead of a list of properties. This
will retain the original aesthetic for that level. For example:
(setq standard-themes-headings
'((1 . t) ; keep the default style
(2 . (variable-pitch 1.2))
(t . (variable-pitch)))) ; style for all unspecified headings
(setq standard-themes-headings
'((1 . (variable-pitch 1.6))
(2 . (1.3))
(t . t))) ; default style for all unspecified levels
Style of region highlight
The user option standard-themes-region
controls the appearance of
the region
face (the highlighted selection of an area).
The value it accepts is a list of symbols.
If nil
or an empty list (the default), use a subtle background for
the region and preserve the color of selected text.
The no-extend
symbol limits the highlighted area to the end of the
line, so that it does not reach the edge of the window.
The neutral
symbol makes the highlighted area's background gray (or
more gray, depending on the theme).
The intense
symbol amplifies the intensity of the highlighted area's
background color. It also overrides any text color to keep it
legible.
Combinations of those symbols are expressed in any order.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq standard-themes-region '(intense no-extend))
Other examples:
(setq standard-themes-region '(intense))
(setq standard-themes-region '(intense no-extend neutral))
Loading a theme
Emacs can load and maintain enabled multiple themes at once. This
typically leads to awkward styling and weird combinations. The theme
looks broken and the designer's intent is misunderstood. Before
loading either of the standard-themes
, the user is encouraged to
disable all others:
(mapc #'disable-theme custom-enabled-themes)
Then load the theme of choice. For example:
(load-theme 'standard-light :no-confirm)
The :no-confirm
is optional. It simply skips the step where Emacs
asks the user whether they are sure about loading the theme.
Consider adding code like the above to the user configuration file, such
as init.el
.
As the Standard themes are extensible, another way to load the theme
of choice is to use either standard-themes-load-dark
or
standard-themes-load-light
. These functions take care of (i)
disabling other themes, (ii) loading the specified Standard theme, and
(iii) running the standard-themes-post-load-hook
which is useful for
do-it-yourself customizations (The general approach to DIY changes).
These two functions are also called by the command
standard-themes-toggle
.
Preview theme colors
The command standard-themes-preview-colors
uses minibuffer
completion to select an item from the Standard themes and then
produces a buffer with previews of its color palette entries. The
buffer has a naming scheme which reflects the given choice, like
standard-light-preview-colors
for the standard-light
theme.
The command standard-themes-preview-colors-current
skips the
minibuffer selection process and just produces a preview for the
current Standard theme.
Use colors from the active Standard theme
Advanced users may want to call color variables from the palette of
the active Standard theme. The macro standard-themes-with-colors
supplies those to any form called inside of it. For example:
(standard-themes-with-colors
(list bg-main fg-main bg-mode-line))
;; => ("#ffffff" "#000000" "#b3b3b3")
The above return value is for standard-light
when that is the active
Standard theme. Switching to standard-dark
and evaluating this code
anew will give us the relevant results for that theme:
(standard-themes-with-colors
(list bg-main fg-main bg-mode-line cursor))
;; => ("#000000" "#ffffff" "#505050")
Do-It-Yourself customizations.
The palette of each Standard theme is considered stable. No removals
shall be made. Though please note that some tweaks to individual hues
or color mapping are still possible. At any rate, we will not
outright break any code that uses standard-themes-with-colors
.
Do-It-Yourself customizations
This section shows how the user can tweak the Standard themes to their
liking, often by employing the standard-themes-with-colors
macro
(Use colors from the active Standard theme).
The general approach to advanced DIY changes
When the user wants to customize Emacs faces there are two considerations they need to make if they care about robustness:
- Do not hardcode color values, but instead use the relevant variables from the Standard themes.
- Make the changes persist through theme changes between the Standard themes.
For point 1 we provide the standard-themes-with-colors
macro, while for
point 2 we have the standard-themes-post-load-hook
. The hook runs
at the end of the command standard-themes-toggle
.
Use colors from the active Standard theme.
A theme-agnostic hook for theme loading.
We need to wrap our code in the standard-themes-with-colors
and
declare it as a function which we then add to the hook. Here we show
the general approach of putting those pieces together.
To customize faces in a way that mirrors the Standard themes' source
code, we use the built-in custom-set-faces
. The value it accepts
has the same syntax as that found in standard-themes.el
,
specifically the standard-themes-faces
constant. It thus is easy to
copy lines from there and tweak them. Let's pick a couple of
font-lock faces (used in all programming modes, among others):
(defun my-standard-themes-custom-faces ()
"My customizations on top of the Standard themes.
This function is added to the `standard-themes-post-load-hook'."
(standard-themes-with-colors
(custom-set-faces
;; These are the default specifications
`(font-lock-comment-face ((,c :inherit standard-themes-italic :foreground ,comment)))
`(font-lock-variable-name-face ((,c :foreground ,variable))))))
;; Using the hook lets our changes persist when we use the commands
;; `standard-themes-toggle', `standard-themes-load-dark',
;; `standard-themes-load-light'.
(add-hook 'standard-themes-post-load-hook #'my-standard-themes-custom-faces)
Each of the Standard themes has its own color palette and
corresponding mapping of values to constructs. So the color of the
comment
variable will differ between the themes. For the purpose of
our demonstration, we make variables look like comments and comments
like variables:
(defun my-standard-themes-custom-faces ()
"My customizations on top of the Standard themes.
This function is added to the `standard-themes-post-load-hook'."
(standard-themes-with-colors
(custom-set-faces
`(font-lock-comment-face ((,c :foreground ,variable)))
`(font-lock-variable-name-face ((,c :inherit standard-themes-italic :foreground ,comment))))))
;; Using the hook lets our changes persist when we use the commands
;; `standard-themes-toggle', `standard-themes-load-dark',
;; `standard-themes-load-light'.
(add-hook 'standard-themes-post-load-hook #'my-standard-themes-custom-faces)
All changes take effect when a theme is loaded again. As such, it is
better to use either standard-themes-load-dark
or
standard-themes-load-light
at startup so that the function added to
the hook gets applied properly upon first load. Like this:
(defun my-standard-themes-custom-faces ()
"My customizations on top of the Standard themes.
This function is added to the `standard-themes-post-load-hook'."
(standard-themes-with-colors
(custom-set-faces
`(font-lock-comment-face ((,c :foreground ,variable)))
`(font-lock-variable-name-face ((,c :inherit standard-themes-italic :foreground ,comment))))))
;; Using the hook lets our changes persist when we use the commands
;; `standard-themes-toggle', `standard-themes-load-dark',
;; `standard-themes-load-light'.
(add-hook 'standard-themes-post-load-hook #'my-standard-themes-custom-faces)
;; Load the theme and run `standard-themes-post-load-hook'
(standard-themes-load-light) ; OR (standard-themes-load-dark)
Please contact us if you have specific questions about this mechanism. We are willing to help and shall provide comprehensive documentation where necessary.
A theme-agnostic hook for theme loading
The themes are designed with the intent to be useful to Emacs users of varying skill levels, from beginners to experts. This means that we try to make things easier by not expecting anyone reading this document to be proficient in Emacs Lisp or programming in general.
Such a case is with the use of the standard-themes-post-load-hook
,
which is called after the evaluation of any of the commands we provide
for loading a theme (Loading a theme). We recommend using that hook
for advanced customizations, because (1) we know for sure that it is
available once the themes are loaded, and (2) anyone consulting this
manual, especially the sections on enabling and loading the themes,
will be in a good position to benefit from that hook.
Advanced users who have a need to switch between the Standard themes
and other items (e.g. the modus-themes
and ef-themes
) will find
that such a hook does not meet their requirements: it only works with
the Standard themes and only with the functions they provide.
A theme-agnostic setup can be configured thus:
(defvar after-enable-theme-hook nil
"Normal hook run after enabling a theme.")
(defun run-after-enable-theme-hook (&rest _args)
"Run `after-enable-theme-hook'."
(run-hooks 'after-enable-theme-hook))
(advice-add 'enable-theme :after #'run-after-enable-theme-hook)
This creates the after-enable-theme-hook
and makes it run after each
call to enable-theme
, which means that it will work for all themes
and also has the benefit that it does not depend on functions such as
standard-themes-select
and the others mentioned in this manual. The
function enable-theme
is called internally by load-theme
, so the
hook works everywhere.
The downside of the theme-agnostic hook is that any functions added to
it will likely not be able to benefit from macro calls that read the
active theme, such as standard-themes-with-colors
(the Modus and Ef
themes have an equivalent macro). Not all Emacs themes have the same
capabilities.
In this document, we always mention standard-themes-post-load-hook
though the user can replace it with after-enable-theme-hook
should
they need to (provided they understand the implications).
Add support for hl-todo
The hl-todo
package provides the user option hl-todo-keyword-faces
:
it specifies an association list of (KEYWORD . COLOR-VALUE)
pairs.
There are no faces, which the theme could style seamlessly. As such, it
rests on the user to specify appropriate color values. This can be done
either by hardcoding colors, which is inefficient, or by using the macro
standard-themes-with-colors
(The general approach to DIY changes).
Here we show the latter method.
(defun my-standard-themes-hl-todo-faces ()
"Configure `hl-todo-keyword-faces' with Standard themes colors.
The exact color values are taken from the active Standard theme."
(standard-themes-with-colors
(setq hl-todo-keyword-faces
`(("HOLD" . ,yellow)
("TODO" . ,red)
("NEXT" . ,blue)
("THEM" . ,magenta)
("PROG" . ,cyan-warmer)
("OKAY" . ,green-warmer)
("DONT" . ,yellow-warmer)
("FAIL" . ,red-warmer)
("BUG" . ,red-warmer)
("DONE" . ,green)
("NOTE" . ,blue-warmer)
("KLUDGE" . ,cyan)
("HACK" . ,cyan)
("TEMP" . ,red)
("FIXME" . ,red-warmer)
("XXX+" . ,red-warmer)
("REVIEW" . ,red)
("DEPRECATED" . ,yellow)))))
(add-hook 'standard-themes-post-load-hook #'my-standard-themes-hl-todo-faces)
To find the names of the color variables, the user can rely on the commands for previewing the palette (Preview theme colors).
Configure bold and italic faces
The Standard themes do not hardcode a :weight
or :slant
attribute in the
faces they cover. Instead, they configure the generic faces called
bold
and italic
to use the appropriate styles and then instruct all
relevant faces that require emphasis to inherit from them.
This practically means that users can change the particularities of what
it means for a construct to be bold/italic, by tweaking the bold
and
italic
faces. Cases where that can be useful include:
- The default typeface does not have a variant with slanted glyphs (e.g. Fira Mono/Code as of this writing on 2022-11-30), so the user wants to add another family for the italics, such as Hack.
- The typeface of choice provides a multitude of weights and the user
prefers the light one by default. To prevent the bold weight from
being too heavy compared to the light one, they opt to make
bold
use a semibold weight. - The typeface distinguishes between oblique and italic forms by
providing different font variants (the former are just slanted
versions of the upright forms, while the latter have distinguishing
features as well). In this case, the user wants to specify the font
that applies to the
italic
face.
To achieve those effects, one must first be sure that the fonts they use have support for those features.
In this example, we set the default font family to Fira Code, while we choose to render italics in the Hack typeface (obviously one needs to pick fonts that work in tandem):
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :family "Fira Code" :height 110)
(set-face-attribute 'italic nil :family "Hack")
And here we play with different weights, using Source Code Pro:
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :family "Source Code Pro" :height 110 :weight 'light)
(set-face-attribute 'bold nil :weight 'semibold)
To reset the font family, one can use this:
(set-face-attribute 'italic nil :family 'unspecified)
Consider the fontaine
package on GNU ELPA (by Protesilaos) which
provides the means to configure font families via faces.
Tweak org-modern
timestamps
The org-modern
package uses faces and text properties to make Org
buffers more aesthetically pleasing. It affects tables, timestamps,
lists, headings, and more.
In previous versions of the Standard themes, we mistakenly affected one of its
faces: the org-modern-label
. It changed the intended looks and
prevented the user option org-modern-label-border
from having its
desired effect. As such, we no longer override that face.
Users who were used to the previous design and who generally do not
configure the user options of org-modern
may thus notice a change in
how clocktables (or generally tables with timestamps) are aligned. The
simplest solution is to instruct the mode to not prettify timestamps, by
setting the user option org-modern-timestamp
to nil
. For example, by
adding this to the init file:
(setq org-modern-timestamp nil)
Alignment in tables will also depend on the use of proportionately spaced fonts. Enable the relevant option to work with those without any further trouble (Enable mixed fonts).
For any further issues, you are welcome to ask for help.
Tweak goto-address-mode faces
The built-in goto-address-mode
uses heuristics to identify URLs and
email addresses in the current buffer. It then applies a face to them
to change their style. Some packages, such as notmuch
, use this
minor-mode automatically.
The faces are not declared with defface
, meaning that it is better
that the theme does not modify them. The user is thus encouraged to
consider including this in their setup:
(setq goto-address-url-face 'link
goto-address-url-mouse-face 'highlight
goto-address-mail-face 'link
goto-address-mail-mouse-face 'highlight)
My personal preference is to set goto-address-mail-face
to nil
,
because it otherwise adds too much visual noise to the buffer (email
addresses stand out more, due to the use of the uncommon @
caharacter
but also because they are often enclosed in angled brackets).
Faces defined by the Standard themes
The themes define some faces to make it possible to achieve
consistency between various groups of faces. For example, all "marks
for selection" use the standard-themes-mark-select
face. If, say, the
user wants to edit this face to include an underline, the change will
apply to lots of packages, like Dired, Trashed, Ibuffer.
Do-It-Yourself customizations.
All the faces defined by the themes:
standard-themes-bold
standard-themes-fixed-pitch
standard-themes-fringe-error
standard-themes-fringe-info
standard-themes-fringe-warning
standard-themes-heading-0
standard-themes-heading-1
standard-themes-heading-2
standard-themes-heading-3
standard-themes-heading-4
standard-themes-heading-5
standard-themes-heading-6
standard-themes-heading-7
standard-themes-heading-8
standard-themes-italic
standard-themes-key-binding
standard-themes-mark-delete
standard-themes-mark-other
standard-themes-mark-select
standard-themes-ui-variable-pitch
standard-themes-underline-error
standard-themes-underline-info
standard-themes-underline-warning
Supported packages or face groups
The standard-themes
will only ever support a curated list of packages based
on my judgement (Packages that are hard to support). Nevertheless, the
list of explicitly or implicitly supported packages already covers
everything most users need.
Explicitly supported packages or face groups
- all basic faces
- all-the-icons
- all-the-icons-dired
- all-the-icons-ibuffer
- ansi-color
- auctex
- auto-dim-other-buffers
- bongo
- bookmark
- calendar and diary
- cider
- change-log and log-view (part of VC)
- chart
- clojure-mode
- company
- compilation
- completions
- consult
- corfu
- custom (
M-x customize
) - denote
- dictionary
- diff-hl
- diff-mode
- dired
- dired-subtree
- diredfl
- dirvish
- display-fill-column-indicator-mode
- doom-modeline
- ediff
- eglot
- eldoc
- elfeed
- embark
- epa
- eshell
- eww
- flycheck
- flymake
- flyspell
- font-lock
- git-commit
- git-rebase
- gnus
- hi-lock (
M-x highlight-regexp
) - ibuffer
- image-dired
- info
- isearch, occur, query-replace
- keycast
- lin
- line numbers (
display-line-numbers-mode
and global variant) - magit
- man
- marginalia
- markdown-mode
- messages
- mode-line
- mu4e
- neotree
- notmuch
- olivetti
- orderless
- org
- org-habit
- org-modern
- outline-mode
- outline-minor-faces
- package (
M-x list-packages
) - perspective
- pulsar
- pulse
- rainbow-delimiters
- rcirc
- recursion-indicator
- regexp-builder (re-builder)
- ruler-mode
- shell-script-mode (sh-mode)
- show-paren-mode
- shr
- smerge
- tab-bar-mode
- tab-line-mode
- tempel
- term
- textsec
- transient
- trashed
- tree-sitter
- tty-menu
- vc (
vc-dir.el
,vc-hooks.el
) - vertico
- wgrep
- which-function-mode
- whitespace-mode
- widget
- writegood-mode
- woman
Implicitly supported packages or face groups
Those are known to work with the Standard themes either because their colors are appropriate or because they inherit from basic faces which the themes already cover:
- apropos
- dim-autoload
- hl-todo
- icomplete
- ido
- multiple-cursors
- paren-face
- which-key
- xref
Note that "implicitly supported" does not mean that they always fit in perfectly. If there are refinements we need to made, then we need to intervene (Explicitly supported packages or face groups).
Packages that are hard to support
These are difficult to support due to their (i) incompatibility with the
design of the standard-themes
, (ii) complexity or multiple points of entry,
(iii) external dependencies, (iv) existence of better alternatives in my
opinion, or (v) inconsiderate use of color out-of-the-box and implicit
unwillingness to be good Emacs citizens:
- avy
- its UI is prone to visual breakage and is hard to style correctly.
- calibredb
- has an external dependency that I don't use.
- ctrlf
- use the built-in isearch or the
consult-line
command ofconsult
. - dired+
- it is complex and makes inconsiderate use of color.
- ein (Emacs IPython Notebook)
- external dependency that I don't use.
- elfeed-goodies
- depends on
powerline
… - ement.el
- has an external dependency that I don't use.
- helm
- it is complex and makes inconsiderate use of color. Prefer
the
vertico
,consult
, andembark
packages. - info+
- it is complex and makes inconsiderate use of color.
- ivy/counsel/swiper
- use the
vertico
,consult
, andembark
packages which are designed to be compatible with standard Emacs mechanisms and are modular. - lsp-mode
- has external dependencies that I don't use.
- powerline
- requires too many shades of background and generally violates our expectation of how the mode-line is supposed to look by placing the designated default background in unexpected places.
- solaire
- in principle, it is incompatible with practically every theme that is not designed around it. Emacs does not distinguish between "UI" and "syntax" buffers.
- spaceline
- same as
powerline
. - sx
- has an external dependency that I don't use.
- telega
- has an external dependency that I don't use (I don't even have a smartphone).
- telephone-line
- same as
powerline
. - treemacs
- it has too many dependencies and does too many things.
- web-mode
- I don't use all those Web technologies and cannot test this properly without support from an expert. It also defines lots of faces that hardcode color values for no good reason.
The above list is non-exhaustive though you get the idea.
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