Copyright (C) 2020-2022 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.”
This manual, written by Protesilaos Stavrou, describes the customization
options for the modus-operandi
and modus-vivendi
themes, and provides
every other piece of information pertinent to them.
The documentation furnished herein corresponds to stable version 1.6.0, released on 2021-09-29. 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 1.7.0-dev.
The Modus themes are designed for accessible readability. They conform with the highest standard for color contrast between any given combination of background and foreground values. This corresponds to the WCAG AAA standard, which specifies a minimum rate of distance in relative luminance of 7:1.
Modus Operandi (modus-operandi
) is a light theme, while Modus Vivendi
(modus-vivendi
) is dark. Each theme’s color palette is designed to meet
the needs of the numerous interfaces that are possible in the Emacs
computing environment.
The overarching objective of this project is to always offer accessible color combinations. There shall never be a compromise on this principle. If there arises an inescapable trade-off between readability and stylistic considerations, we will always opt for the former.
To ensure that users have a consistently accessible experience, the themes strive to achieve as close to full face coverage as possible (Face coverage).
Furthermore, the themes are designed to empower users with red-green color deficiency (deuteranopia). This is achieved through customization options which have the effect of replacing all relevant instances of green with a variant of blue (Customization Options).
Starting with version 0.12.0 and onwards, the themes are built into GNU Emacs.
Check the web page with the screen shots. There are lots of scenarios on display that draw attention to details and important aspects in the design of the themes. They also showcase the numerous customization options.
Please refer to the web page with the change log. It is comprehensive and covers everything that goes into every tagged release of the themes.
The Modus themes are distributed with Emacs starting with version 28.1. On older versions of Emacs, they can be installed using Emacs’ package manager or manually from their code repository. There also exist packages for distributions of GNU/Linux.
In the following example, we are assuming that your Emacs files are stored in ‘~/.emacs.d’ and that you want to place the Modus themes in ‘~/.emacs.d/modus-themes’.
$ git clone https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes.git ~/.emacs.d/modus-themes
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/modus-themes")
The themes are now ready to be used: Enable and load.
The modus-themes
package is available from the GNU ELPA archive, which
is configured by default.
Prior to querying any package archive, make sure to have updated the
index, with M-x package-refresh-contents. Then all you need to do
is type M-x package-install and specify the modus-themes
.
Note that older versions of the themes used to be distributed as standalone packages. This practice has been discontinued starting with version 1.0.0 of this project.
Once installed, the themes are ready to be used: Enable and load.
The themes are also available from the archives of some distributions of GNU/Linux. These should correspond to a tagged release rather than building directly from the latest Git commit. It all depends on the distro’s packaging policies.
The themes are part of Debian 11 Bullseye. Get them with:
sudo apt install elpa-modus-themes
They are now ready to be used: Enable and load.
Users of Guix can get the themes with this command:
guix package -i emacs-modus-themes
They are now ready to be used: Enable and load.
Users of the built-in themes can load and automatically enable the theme of their preference by adding either form to their init file:
(load-theme 'modus-operandi) ; Light theme (load-theme 'modus-vivendi) ; Dark theme
This is all one needs.
Users of packaged variants of the themes must add a few more lines to ensure that everything works as intended. First, one has to require the main library before loading either theme:
(require 'modus-themes)
Then it is recommended to load the individual theme files with the
helper function modus-themes-load-themes
:
;; Load the theme files before enabling a theme (else you get an error). (modus-themes-load-themes)
Once the libraries that define the themes are enabled, one can activate a theme with either of the following expressions:
(modus-themes-load-operandi) ; Light theme ;; OR (modus-themes-load-vivendi) ; Dark theme
Changes to the available customization options must always be evaluated before loading a theme (Customization Options). An exception to this norm is when using the various Custom interfaces or with commands like M-x customize-set-variable, which automatically reload the theme by default (Option for inhibiting theme reload). This is how a basic setup could look like:
(require 'modus-themes) ;; Your customisations here. For example: (setq modus-themes-bold-constructs t modus-themes-mode-line '3d) ;; Load the theme files before enabling a theme (else you get an error). (modus-themes-load-themes) ;; Enable the theme of your preference: (modus-themes-load-operandi) ;; Optionally add a key binding for the toggle between the themes: (define-key global-map (kbd "<f5>") #'modus-themes-toggle)
Sample configuration for use-package.
With those granted, bear in mind a couple of technical points on
modus-themes-load-operandi
and modus-themes-load-vivendi
, as well as
modus-themes-toggle
which relies on them:
load-theme
. Some users prefer to opt for
enable-theme
instead (Differences between loading and enabling).
modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook
as
their final step. This can be employed for bespoke configurations
(Advanced customization). Experienced users may not wish to rely
on such a hook and the functions that run it: they may prefer a
custom solution (A theme-agnostic hook for theme loading).
It is common for Emacs users to rely on use-package
for declaring
package configurations in their setup. We use this as an example:
(use-package modus-themes :ensure ; omit this to use the built-in themes :init ;; Add all your customizations prior to loading the themes (setq modus-themes-italic-constructs t modus-themes-bold-constructs nil modus-themes-region '(bg-only no-extend)) ;; Load the theme files before enabling a theme (else you get an error). (modus-themes-load-themes) :config ;; Load the theme of your choice: (modus-themes-load-operandi) ;; OR (modus-themes-load-vivendi) :bind ("<f5>" . modus-themes-toggle))
Differences between loading and enabling.
Note: make sure not to customize the variable custom-theme-load-path
or custom-theme-directory
after the themes’ package declaration. That
will lead to failures in loading the files. If either or both of those
variables need to be changed, their values should be defined before the
package declaration of the themes.
The reason we recommend load-theme
instead of the other option of
enable-theme
is that the former does a kind of “reset” on the face
specs. It quite literally loads (or re-loads) the theme. Whereas the
latter simply puts an already loaded theme at the top of the list of
enabled items, re-using whatever state was last loaded.
As such, load-theme
reads all customizations that may happen during
any given Emacs session: even after the initial setup of a theme.
Examples are calls to custom-set-faces
, as well as new values assigned
to the options the Modus themes provide (Customization Options).
Our tests show that enable-theme
does not read such variables anew, so
it might appear to the unsuspecting user that the themes are somehow
broken whenever they try to assign a new value to a customization option
or some face.
This “reset” that load-theme
conducts does, however, come at the cost
of being somewhat slower than enable-theme
. Users who have a stable
setup and who seldom update their variables during a given Emacs
session, are better off using something like this:
(require 'modus-themes) (load-theme 'modus-operandi t t) (load-theme 'modus-vivendi t t) (enable-theme 'modus-operandi) ;; OR (enable-theme 'modus-vivendi)
Sample configuration for use-package.
With the above granted, other sections of the manual discuss how to
configure custom faces, where load-theme
is expected, though
enable-theme
could still apply in stable setups:
Case-by-case face specs using the themes’ palette.
Face specs at scale using the themes’ palette.
The Modus themes are highly configurable, though they should work well without any further tweaks. By default, all customization options are set to nil, unless otherwise noted in this manual.
Remember that all customization options must be evaluated before loading a theme (Enable and load).
Below is a summary of what you will learn in the subsequent sections of this manual.
(setq modus-themes-italic-constructs t modus-themes-bold-constructs nil modus-themes-no-mixed-fonts nil modus-themes-subtle-line-numbers nil modus-themes-success-deuteranopia t modus-themes-tabs-accented t modus-themes-inhibit-reload t ; only applies to `customize-set-variable' and related modus-themes-fringes nil ; {nil,'subtle,'intense} ;; Options for `modus-themes-lang-checkers' are either nil (the ;; default), or a list of properties that may include any of those ;; symbols: `straight-underline', `text-also', `background', ;; `intense' modus-themes-lang-checkers nil ;; Options for `modus-themes-mode-line' are either nil, or a list ;; that can combine any of `3d' OR `moody', `borderless', ;; `accented', `padded'. modus-themes-mode-line '(padded accented borderless) ;; Options for `modus-themes-syntax' are either nil (the default), ;; or a list of properties that may include any of those symbols: ;; `faint', `yellow-comments', `green-strings', `alt-syntax' modus-themes-syntax nil ;; Options for `modus-themes-hl-line' are either nil (the default), ;; or a list of properties that may include any of those symbols: ;; `accented', `underline', `intense' modus-themes-hl-line '(underline accented) ;; Options for `modus-themes-paren-match' are either nil (the ;; default), or a list of properties that may include any of those ;; symbols: `bold', `intense', `underline' modus-themes-paren-match '(bold intense) ;; Options for `modus-themes-links' are either nil (the default), ;; or a list of properties that may include any of those symbols: ;; `neutral-underline' OR `no-underline', `faint' OR `no-color', ;; `bold', `italic', `background' modus-themes-links '(neutral-underline background) ;; Options for `modus-themes-prompts' are either nil (the ;; default), or a list of properties that may include any of those ;; symbols: `background', `bold', `gray', `intense', `italic' modus-themes-prompts '(intense bold) modus-themes-completions 'moderate ; {nil,'moderate,'opinionated} modus-themes-mail-citations nil ; {nil,'faint,'monochrome} ;; Options for `modus-themes-region' are either nil (the default), ;; or a list of properties that may include any of those symbols: ;; `no-extend', `bg-only', `accented' modus-themes-region '(bg-only no-extend) ;; Options for `modus-themes-diffs': nil, 'desaturated, ;; 'bg-only, 'deuteranopia, 'fg-only-deuteranopia modus-themes-diffs 'fg-only-deuteranopia modus-themes-org-blocks 'gray-background ; {nil,'gray-background,'tinted-background} modus-themes-org-agenda ; this is an alist: read the manual or its doc string '((header-block . (variable-pitch scale-title)) (header-date . (grayscale workaholic bold-today)) (event . (accented scale-small)) (scheduled . uniform) (habit . traffic-light-deuteranopia)) modus-themes-headings ; this is an alist: read the manual or its doc string '((1 . (overline background)) (2 . (rainbow overline)) (t . (no-bold))) modus-themes-variable-pitch-ui nil modus-themes-variable-pitch-headings t modus-themes-scale-headings t modus-themes-scale-1 1.1 modus-themes-scale-2 1.15 modus-themes-scale-3 1.21 modus-themes-scale-4 1.27 modus-themes-scale-title 1.33)
Symbol: modus-themes-inhibit-reload
Possible values:
nil
t
(default)
By default, customizing a theme-related user option through the Custom interfaces or with M-x customize-set-variable will not reload the currently active Modus theme.
Enable this behavior by setting this variable to nil
.
Symbol: modus-themes-success-deuteranopia
Possible values:
nil
(default)
t
The default is to colorise all faces that denote “success”, “done”, or similar with a variant of green.
With a non-nil value (t
), use variants of blue instead of green. This
is meant to empower users with red-green color deficiency.
The present customization option should apply to all contexts where there can be a color-coded distinction between success and failure, to-do and done, and so on.
Diffs, which have a red/green dichotomy by default, can also be configured to conform with deuteranopia.
Symbol: modus-themes-bold-constructs
Possible values:
nil
(default)
t
The default is to use a bold typographic weight only when it is required.
With a non-nil value (t
) display several syntactic constructs in bold
weight. This concerns keywords and other important aspects of code
syntax. It also affects certain mode line indicators and command-line
prompts.
Advanced users may also want to configure the exact attributes of the
bold
face.
Configure bold and italic faces.
Symbol: modus-themes-italic-constructs
Possible values:
nil
(default)
t
The default is to not use slanted text forms (italics) unless it is absolutely necessary.
With a non-nil value (t
) choose to render more faces in italics. This
typically affects documentation strings and code comments.
Advanced users may also want to configure the exact attributes of the
italic
face.
Configure bold and italic faces.
Symbol: modus-themes-syntax
Possible values are expressed as a list of properties (default is nil
or
an empty list). The list can include any of the following symbols:
faint
yellow-comments
green-strings
alt-syntax
The default (a nil
value or an empty list) is to use a balanced
combination of colors on the cyan-blue-magenta side of the spectrum.
There is little to no use of greens, yellows, and reds. Comments are
gray, strings are blue colored, doc strings are a shade of cyan, while
color combinations are designed to avoid exaggerations.
The property faint
fades the saturation of all applicable colors, where
that is possible or appropriate.
The property yellow-comments
applies a yellow color to comments.
The property green-strings
applies a green color to strings and a green
tint to doc strings.
The property alt-syntax
changes the combination of colors beyond strings
and comments, so that the effective palette is broadened to provide
greater variety relative to the default.
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(faint) (green-strings yellow-comments) (alt-syntax green-strings yellow-comments) (faint alt-syntax green-strings yellow-comments)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq modus-themes-syntax '(faint alt-syntax))
Independent of this variable, users may also control the use of a bold
weight or italic text: modus-themes-bold-constructs
and
modus-themes-italic-constructs
.
Option for more bold constructs.
Option for more italic constructs.
Symbol: modus-themes-no-mixed-fonts
Possible values:
nil
(default)
t
By default, the themes configure some spacing-sensitive faces like Org
tables and code blocks to always inherit from the fixed-pitch
face.
This is to ensure that those constructs remain monospaced even when
users opt for a mode that remaps typeface families, such as the built-in
M-x variable-pitch-mode. Otherwise the layout would appear
broken, due to how spacing is done. To disable this behavior, set the
option to t
.
Users may prefer to use another package for handling mixed typeface
configurations, rather than letting the theme do it, perhaps because a
purpose-specific package has extra functionality. Two possible options
are org-variable-pitch
and mixed-pitch
.
Font configurations for Org and others.
Symbol: modus-themes-links
Possible values are expressed as a list of properties (default is nil
or
an empty list). The list can include any of the following symbols:
neutral-underline
no-underline
faint
no-color
bold
italic
background
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. While a no-color
property removes the color
from the text. If both of those are set, the latter takes precedence.
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).
A background
property applies a subtle tinted background color.
In case both no-underline
and no-color
are set, then a subtle gray
background is applied to all links. This can still be combined with the
bold
and italic
properties.
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(faint) (no-underline faint) (no-color no-underline bold) (italic bold background no-color no-underline)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq modus-themes-links '(neutral-underline background))
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.
Symbol: modus-themes-prompts
Possible values are expressed as a list of properties (default is nil
or
an empty list). The list can include any of the following symbols:
background
bold
gray
intense
italic
The default (a nil
value or an empty list) means to only use a subtle
accented foreground color.
The property background
applies a background color to the prompt’s text.
By default, this is a subtle accented value.
The property intense
makes the foreground color more prominent. If the
background
property is also set, it amplifies the value of the
background as well.
The property gray
changes the prompt’s colors to grayscale. This
affects the foreground and, if the background
property is also set, the
background. Its effect is subtle, unless it is combined with the
intense
property.
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:
(intense) (bold intense) (intense bold gray) (intense background gray bold)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq modus-themes-prompts '(background gray))
Symbol: modus-themes-mode-line
Possible values, which can be expressed as a list of combinations of box effect, color, and border visibility:
3d
moody
accented
borderless
padded
The default (a nil value or an empty list) is a two-dimensional rectangle with a border around it. The active and the inactive mode lines use different shades of grayscale values for the background, foreground, border.
The 3d
property applies a three-dimensional effect to the
active mode line. The inactive mode lines remain two-dimensional
and are toned down a bit, relative to the default style.
The moody
property optimizes the mode line for use with the
library of the same name (hereinafter referred to as ’Moody’).
In practice, it removes the box effect and replaces it with
underline and overline properties. It also tones down the
inactive mode lines. Despite its intended purpose, this option
can also be used without the Moody library (please consult the
themes’ manual on this point for more details). If both 3d
and
moody
properties are set, the latter takes precedence.
The borderless
property removes the color of the borders. It
does not actually remove the borders, but only makes their color
the same as the background, effectively creating some padding.
The accented
property ensures that the active mode line uses a
colored background instead of the standard shade of gray.
The padded
property increases the apparent height of the mode line.
This is done by applying box effects and combining them with an
underline and overline. To ensure that the underline is placed at the
bottom, set x-underline-at-descent-line
to non-nil. The padded
property
has no effect when the moody
property is also used, because Moody
already applies its own padding.
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(accented) (borderless 3d) (moody accented borderless)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq modus-themes-mode-line '(borderless accented))
Note that Moody does not expose any faces that the themes could style
directly. Instead it re-purposes existing ones to render its tabs and
ribbons. As such, there may be cases where the contrast ratio falls
below the 7:1 target that the themes conform with (WCAG AAA). To hedge
against this, we configure a fallback foreground for the moody
property,
which will come into effect when the background of the mode line changes
to something less accessible, such as Moody ribbons (read the doc string
of set-face-attribute
, specifically :distant-foreground
). This fallback
is activated when Emacs determines that the background and foreground of
the given construct are too close to each other in terms of color
distance. In practice, users will need to experiment with the variable
face-near-same-color-threshold
to trigger the effect. We find that a
value of ‘45000’ shall suffice, contrary to the default ‘30000’. Though for
the combinations that involve the accented
and moody
properties, as
mentioned above, that should be raised up to ‘70000’. Do not set it too
high, because it has the adverse effect of always overriding the default
colors (which have been carefully designed to be highly accessible).
Furthermore, because Moody expects an underline and overline instead of
a box style, it is advised to set x-underline-at-descent-line
to a
non-nil value.
Symbol: modus-themes-tabs-accented
Possible values:
nil
(default)
t
By default, all tab interfaces use backgrounds which are shades of gray. When this option is set to non-nil, the backgrounds become colorful.
This affects the built-in tab-bar-mode
and tab-line-mode
, as well as the
Centaur tabs package.
Symbol: modus-themes-completions
Possible values:
nil
(default)
moderate
opinionated
This is a special option that has different effects depending on the completion UI. The interfaces can be grouped in two categories, based on their default aesthetics: (i) those that only or mostly use foreground colors for their interaction model, and (ii) those that combine background and foreground values for some of their metaphors. The former category encompasses Icomplete, Ido, Selectrum, Vertico, as well as pattern matching styles like Orderless and Flx. The latter covers Helm, Ivy, and Sallet.
A value of nil
(the default) will simply respect the metaphors of each
completion framework.
Option moderate
applies a combination of background and foreground that
is fairly subtle. For Icomplete and friends this constitutes a
departure from their default aesthetics, however the difference is
small. While Helm, Ivy et al appear slightly different than their
original looks, as they are toned down a bit.
Option opinionated
uses color combinations that refashion the completion
UI. For the Icomplete camp this means that intense background and
foreground combinations are used: in effect their looks emulate those of
Helm, Ivy and co. in their original style. Whereas the other group of
packages will revert to an even more nuanced aesthetic with some
additional changes to the choice of hues.
To appreciate the scope of this customization option, you should spend
some time with every one of the nil
(default), moderate
, and opinionated
possibilities.
Symbol: modus-themes-mail-citations
Possible values:
nil
(default)
faint
monochrome
By default, citations in email-related buffers apply contrasting hues to different levels of depth in cited text. The colors are fairly easy to tell apart.
A value of faint
makes all citation levels less intense, while retaining
the default style of contrasting hues (albeit very subtle ones).
Option monochrome
turns all citations in to a uniform shade of gray.
Whatever the value assigned to this variable, citations in emails are controlled by typographic elements or indentation, which the themes do not touch.
Symbol: modus-themes-fringes
Possible values:
nil
(default)
subtle
intense
The default is to use the same color as that of the main background,
meaning that the fringes are not obvious though they still occupy the
space given to them by fringe-mode
.
Options subtle
and intense
apply a gray background, making the fringes
visible. The difference between the two is one of degree, as their
names imply.
Symbol: modus-themes-lang-checkers
Possible values are expressed as a list of properties (default is nil
or
an empty list). The list can include any of the following symbols:
straight-underline
text-also
background
intense
The default (a nil
value or an empty list) applies a color-coded
underline to the affected text, while it leaves the original foreground
intact. If the display spec of Emacs has support for it, the
underline’s style is that of a wave, otherwise it is a straight line.
The property straight-underline
ensures that the underline under the
affected text is always drawn as a straight line.
The property text-also
applies the same color of the underline to the
affected text.
The property background
adds a color-coded background.
The property intense
amplifies the applicable colors if background
and/or text-only
are set. If intense
is set on its own, then it implies
text-only
.
To disable fringe indicators for Flymake or Flycheck, refer to variables
flymake-fringe-indicator-position
and flycheck-indication-mode
,
respectively.
Combinations of any of those properties can be expressed in a list, as in those examples:
(background) (straight-underline intense) (background text-also straight-underline)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq modus-themes-lang-checkers '(text-also background))
NOTE: The placement of the straight underline, though not the wave
style, is controlled by the built-in variables underline-minimum-offset
,
x-underline-at-descent-line
, x-use-underline-position-properties
.
Symbol: modus-themes-hl-line
Possible values are expressed as a list of properties (default is nil
or
an empty list). The list can include any of the following symbols:
accented
intense
underline
The default (a nil
value or an empty list) is a subtle gray background
color.
The property accented
changes the background to a colored variant.
An underline
property draws a line below the highlighted area. Its
color is similar to the background, so gray by default or an accent
color when accented
is also set.
An intense
property amplifies the colors in use, which may be both the
background and the underline.
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(intense) (underline intense) (accented intense underline)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq modus-themes-hl-line '(underline accented))
Set x-underline-at-descent-line
to a non-nil value for better results
with underlines.
This style affects several packages that enable hl-line-mode
, such as
‘elfeed’, ‘notmuch’, and ‘mu4e’.
Symbol: modus-themes-subtle-line-numbers
Possible value:
nil
(default)
t
The default style for display-line-numbers-mode
and its global variant
is to apply a subtle gray background to the line numbers. The current
line has a more pronounced background and foreground combination to
bring more attention to itself.
Similarly, the faces for display-line-numbers-major-tick
and its
counterpart display-line-numbers-minor-tick
use appropriate styles that
involve a bespoke background and foreground combination.
With a non-nil value (t
), line numbers have no background of their own.
Instead they retain the primary background of the theme, blending with
the rest of the buffer. Foreground values for all relevant faces are
updated to accommodate this aesthetic.
Symbol: modus-themes-paren-match
Possible values are expressed as a list of properties (default is nil
or
an empty list). The list can include any of the following symbols:
bold
intense
underline
The default (a nil
value or an empty list) is a subtle background color.
The bold
property adds a bold weight to the characters of the matching
delimiters.
The intense
property applies a more prominent background color to the
delimiters.
The underline
property draws a straight line under the affected text.
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(bold) (underline intense) (bold intense underline)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq modus-themes-paren-match '(bold intense))
This customization variable affects the built-in show-paren-mode
and the
‘smartparens’ package.
Symbol: modus-themes-region
Possible values are expressed as a list of properties (default is nil
or
an empty list). The list can include any of the following symbols:
no-extend
bg-only
accented
The default (a nil
value or an empty list) is a prominent gray
background that overrides all foreground colors in the area it
encompasses. Its reach extends to the edge of the window.
The no-extend
property limits the region to the end of the line, so that
it does not reach the edge of the window.
The bg-only
property makes the region’s background color more subtle to
allow the underlying text to retain its foreground colors.
The accented
property applies a more colorful background to the region.
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(no-extend) (bg-only accented) (accented bg-only no-extend)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq modus-themes-region '(bg-only no-extend))
Symbol: modus-themes-diffs
Possible values:
nil
(default)
desaturated
bg-only
deuteranopia
fg-only-deuteranopia
The default (nil
) uses fairly intense color combinations for diffs, by
applying prominently colored backgrounds, with appropriate foregrounds.
Option desaturated
follows the same principles as with the default
(nil
), though it tones down all relevant colors.
Option bg-only
applies a background but does not override the text’s
foreground. This makes it suitable for a non-nil value passed to
diff-font-lock-syntax
(note: Magit does not support syntax highlighting
in diffs—last checked on 2021-04-21).
Option deuteranopia
is like the default (nil
) in terms of using
prominently colored backgrounds, except that it also accounts for
red-green color defficiency by replacing all instances of green with
colors on the blue side of the spectrum. Other stylistic changes are
made in the interest of optimizing for such a use-case.
Option fg-only-deuteranopia
removes all colored backgrounds, except from
word-wise or refined changes. Instead, it only uses color-coded
foreground values to differentiate between added, removed, and changed
lines. If a background is necessary to denote context, a subtle
grayscale value is applied. The color used for added lines is a variant
of blue to account for red-green color defficiency but also because
green text alone is hard to discern in the diff’s context (hard for our
accessibility purposes). The fg-only
option that existed in older
versions of the themes is now an alias of fg-only-deuteranopia
, in the
interest of backward compatibility.
Symbol: modus-themes-org-blocks
Possible values:
nil
(default)
gray-background
(value grayscale
exists for backward compatibility)
tinted-background
(value rainbow
exists for backward compatibility)
The default means that the block has no distinct background of its own and uses the one that applies to the rest of the buffer.
Option gray-background
applies a subtle gray background to the block’s
contents. It also affects the begin and end lines of the block: their
background extends to the edge of the window for Emacs version >= 27
where the :extend
keyword is recognized by set-face-attribute
(this is
contingent on the variable org-fontify-whole-block-delimiter-line
).
Option tinted-background
uses a slightly colored background for the
contents of the block. The exact color will depend on the programming
language and is controlled by the variable org-src-block-faces
(refer to
the theme’s source code for the current association list). For this to
take effect, Org must be restarted with M-x org-mode-restart.
Code blocks use their major mode’s colors only when the variable
org-src-fontify-natively
is non-nil. While quote/verse blocks require
setting org-fontify-quote-and-verse-blocks
to a non-nil value.
Update Org block delimiter fontification.
Older versions of the themes provided options grayscale
(or greyscale
)
and rainbow
. Those will continue to work as they are aliases for
gray-background
and tinted-background
, respectively.
Symbol: modus-themes-org-agenda
This is an alist that accepts a ‘(key . value)’ combination. Some values are specified as a list. Here is a sample, followed by a description of all possible combinations:
(setq modus-themes-org-agenda '((header-block . (variable-pitch scale-title)) (header-date . (grayscale workaholic bold-today)) (event . (accented scale-small)) (scheduled . uniform) (habit . traffic-light)))
A header-block
key applies to elements that concern the headings which
demarcate blocks in the structure of the agenda. By default (a nil
value) those are rendered in a bold typographic weight, plus a height
that is slightly taller than the default font size. Acceptable values
come in the form of a list that can include either or both of those
properties:
variable-pitch
to use a proportionately spaced typeface;
scale-title
to increase the size to the number assigned to
modus-themes-scale-title
(Control the scale of headings) or no-scale
to make the font use the same height as the rest of the buffer.
In case both scale-title
and no-scale
are in the list, the latter takes
precedence.
Example usage:
(header-block . nil) (header-block . (scale-title)) (header-block . (no-scale)) (header-block . (variable-pitch scale-title))
A header-date
key covers date headings. Dates use only a foreground
color by default (a nil
value), with weekdays and weekends having a
slight difference in hueness. The current date has an added gray
background. This key accepts a list of values that can include any of
the following properties:
grayscale
to make weekdays use the main foreground color and
weekends a more subtle gray;
workaholic
to make weekdays and weekends look the same in
terms of color;
bold-today
to apply a bold typographic weight to the current
date;
bold-all
to render all date headings in a bold weight.
scale-heading
increases the height of the date headings to the value
of modus-themes-scale-1
(which is the first step in the scale for
regular headings).
underline-today
applies an underline to the current date while
removing the background it has by default.
For example:
(header-date . nil) (header-date . (workaholic)) (header-date . (grayscale bold-all)) (header-date . (grayscale workaholic)) (header-date . (grayscale workaholic bold-today)) (header-date . (grayscale workaholic bold-today scale-heading))
An event
key covers events from the diary and other entries that derive
from a symbolic expression or sexp (e.g. phases of the moon, holidays).
This key accepts a list of values. By default (a nil value or an empty
list) those have a gray foreground, while sexp events are additionally
presented using slanted text (italics). The properties that can form a
list of possible values are:
scale-small
reduces the height of the entries to the value of the user
option modus-themes-scale-small
(0.9 the height of the main font size
by default).
accented
applies an accent value to the event’s foreground, replacing
the original gray.
italic
adds a slant to the font’s forms (italic or oblique forms,
depending on the typeface).
For example:
(event . nil) (event . (scale-small)) (event . (scale-small accented)) (event . (scale-small accented italic))
A scheduled
key applies to tasks with a scheduled date. By default (a
nil
value), those use varying shades of yellow to denote (i) a past or
current date and (ii) a future date. Valid values are symbols:
uniform
to make all scheduled dates the same color;
rainbow
to use contrasting colors for past, present, future
scheduled dates.
For example:
(scheduled . nil) (scheduled . uniform) (scheduled . rainbow)
A habit
key applies to the org-habit
graph. All possible value are
passed as a symbol. Those are:
nil
) is meant to conform with the original aesthetic of
org-habit
. It employs all four color codes that correspond to the
org-habit states—clear, ready, alert, and overdue—while
distinguishing between their present and future variants. This
results in a total of eight colors in use: red, yellow, green, blue,
in tinted and shaded versions. They cover the full set of information
provided by the org-habit
consistency graph.
simplified
is like the default except that it removes the dichotomy
between current and future variants by applying uniform color-coded
values. It applies a total of four colors: red, yellow, green, blue.
They produce a simplified consistency graph that is more legible (or
less busy) than the default. The intent is to shift focus towards the
distinction between the four states of a habit task, rather than each
state’s present/future outlook.
traffic-light
further reduces the available colors to red, yellow, and
green. As in simplified
, present and future variants appear
uniformly, but differently from it, the clear
state is rendered in a
green hue, instead of the original blue. This is meant to capture the
use-case where a habit task being too early is less important than it
being too late. The difference between ready and clear states is
attenuated by painting both of them using shades of green. This
option thus highlights the alert and overdue states.
traffic-light-deuteranopia
is like the traffic-light
except its three
colors are red, yellow, and blue to be suitable for users with
red-green color deficiency (deuteranopia).
For example:
(habit . nil) (habit . simplified) (habit . traffic-light)
Putting it all together, the alist can look like this:
'((header-block . (scale-title variable-pitch)) (header-date . (grayscale workaholic bold-today)) (event . (accented scale-small)) (scheduled . uniform) (habit . traffic-light)) ;; Or else: (setq modus-themes-org-agenda '((header-block . (scale-title variable-pitch)) (header-date . (grayscale workaholic bold-today)) (event . (accented scale-small)) (scheduled . uniform) (habit . traffic-light)))
Symbol: modus-themes-headings
This is an alist that accepts a ‘(key . list-of-values)’ combination. The
key is either a number, representing the heading’s level or t
, which
pertains to the fallback style. The list of values covers symbols that
refer to properties, as described below. Here is a sample, followed by
a presentation of all available properties:
(setq modus-themes-headings '((1 . (background overline)) (2 . (overline rainbow)) (t . (monochrome))))
Properties:
rainbow
overline
background
no-bold
monochrome
By default (a nil
value for this variable), all headings have a bold
typographic weight and use a desaturated text color.
A rainbow
property makes the text color more saturated.
An overline
property draws a line above the area of the heading.
A background
property adds a subtle tinted color to the background of
the heading.
A no-bold
property removes the bold weight from the heading’s text.
A monochrome
property makes all headings the same base color, which is
that of the default for the active theme (black/white). When background
is also set, monochrome
changes its color to gray. If both monochrome
and rainbow
are set, the former takes precedence.
Combinations of any of those properties are expressed as a list, like in these examples:
(no-bold) (rainbow background) (overline monochrome no-bold)
The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
In user configuration files the form may look like this:
(setq modus-themes-headings '((1 . (background overline rainbow)) (2 . (background overline)) (t . (overline no-bold))))
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 modus-themes-headings '((1 . t) ; keep the default style (2 . (background overline)) (t . (rainbow)))) ; style for all other headings (setq modus-themes-headings '((1 . (background overline)) (2 . (rainbow no-bold)) (t . t))) ; default style for all other levels
For Org users, the extent of the heading depends on the variable
org-fontify-whole-heading-line
. This affects the overline
and
background
properties. Depending on the version of Org, there may be
others, such as org-fontify-done-headline
.
Option for variable-pitch font in headings.
Symbol: modus-themes-scale-headings
Possible values:
nil
(default)
t
The default is to use the same size for headings and paragraph text.
With a non-nil value (t
) make headings larger in height relative to the
main text. This is noticeable in modes like Org, Markdown, and Info.
In addition to the toggle for enabling scaled headings, users can also specify a number of their own.
text-scale-adjust
command.
text-scale-adjust
command (Font configurations).
While we discourage using absolute values, we still provide for this
option for users who do not need to perform text-scaling operations or
who are content with whatever discrepancies in height.
Below are the variables in their default values, using the floating point paradigm. The numbers are very conservative, but one is free to change them to their liking, such as ‘1.2’, ‘1.4’, ‘1.6’, ‘1.8’, ‘2.0’—or use a resource for finding a consistent scale:
(setq modus-themes-scale-1 1.05 modus-themes-scale-2 1.1 modus-themes-scale-3 1.15 modus-themes-scale-4 1.2 modus-themes-scale-title 1.3 modus-themes-scale-small 0.9)
As for the application of that scale, the variables that range from
modus-themes-scale-1
up to modus-themes-scale-4
apply to regular
headings within the context of the given major mode. The former is the
smallest, while the latter is the largest. “Regular headings” are those
that have a standard syntax for their scale, such as Org mode’s eight
levels of asterisks or Markdown’s six columns.
Whereas modus-themes-scale-title
is applied to special headings that do
not conform with the aforementioned syntax, yet which are expected to be
larger than the largest value on that implied scale or at least have
some unique purpose in the buffer. Put concretely, Org’s ‘#+title’ meta
datum is not part of the eight levels of headings in an Org file, yet is
supposed to signify the primary header. Similarly, the Org Agenda’s
structure headings are not part of a recognisable scale and so they also
get modus-themes-scale-title
(Option for Org agenda constructs).
Similarly modus-themes-scale-small
is not applied to regular headings,
but reserved for special contexts where the user is presented with an
option to use a smaller font height than the base size. It is only
implemented for the Org agenda.
Users who wish to maintain scaled headings for the normal syntax while
preventing special headings from standing out, can assign a value of ‘1.0’
to modus-themes-scale-title
to make it the same as body text (or
whatever value would render it indistinguishable from the desired point
of reference).
Note that in earlier versions of Org, scaling would only increase the size of the heading, but not of keywords that were added to it, like “TODO”. The issue has been fixed upstream: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-09-24-org-headings-adapt/.
Symbol: modus-themes-variable-pitch-ui
Possible values:
nil
(default)
t
This option concerns User Interface elements that are under the direct control of Emacs. In particular: the mode line, header line, tab bar, and tab line.
The default is to use the same font as the rest of Emacs, which usually is a monospaced family.
With a non-nil value (t
) apply a proportionately spaced typeface. This
is done by assigning the variable-pitch
face to the relevant items.
Font configurations for Org and others.
Symbol: modus-themes-variable-pitch-headings
Possible values:
nil
(default)
t
The default is to use the main font family, which typically is monospaced.
With a non-nil value (t
) apply a proportionately spaced typeface, else
“variable-pitch”, to headings (such as in Org mode).
Font configurations for Org and others.
Unlike the predefined customization options which follow a clear pattern of allowing the user to quickly specify their preference, the themes also provide a more flexible, albeit difficult, mechanism to control things with precision (Customization Options).
This section is of interest only to users who are prepared to maintain their own local tweaks and who are willing to deal with any possible incompatibilities between versioned releases of the themes. As such, they are labeled as “do-it-yourself” or “DIY”.
If you prefer to maintain different customization options between the two themes, it is best you write your own functions that first set those options and then load the relevant theme. The following code does exactly that by simply differentiating the two themes on the choice of bold constructs in code syntax (enabled for one, disabled for the other).
(defun my-demo-modus-operandi () (interactive) (setq modus-themes-bold-constructs t) ; ENABLE bold (modus-themes-load-operandi)) (defun my-demo-modus-vivendi () (interactive) (setq modus-themes-bold-constructs nil) ; DISABLE bold (modus-themes-load-vivendi)) (defun my-demo-modus-themes-toggle () (if (eq (car custom-enabled-themes) 'modus-operandi) (my-demo-modus-vivendi) (my-demo-modus-operandi)))
Then assign my-demo-modus-themes-toggle
to a key instead of the
equivalent the themes provide.
For a more elaborate design, it is better to inspect the source code of
modus-themes-toggle
and relevant functions.
This section is about tweaking individual faces. If you plan to do things at scale, consult the next section: Set multiple faces.
We already covered in previous sections how to toggle between the themes and how to configure options prior to loading. We also explained that some of the functions made available to users will fire up a hook that can be used to pass tweaks in the post-theme-load phase.
Now assume you wish to change a single face, say, the cursor
. And you
would like to get the standard “blue” color value of the active Modus
theme, whether it is Modus Operandi or Modus Vivendi. To do that, you
can use the modus-themes-color
function. It accepts a symbol that is
associated with a color in modus-themes-operandi-colors
and
modus-themes-vivendi-colors
. Like this:
(modus-themes-color 'blue)
The function always extracts the color value of the active Modus theme.
(progn (load-theme 'modus-operandi t) (modus-themes-color 'blue)) ; "#0031a9" for `modus-operandi' (progn (load-theme 'modus-vivendi t) (modus-themes-color 'blue)) ; "#2fafff" for `modus-vivendi'
Do C-h v on the aforementioned variables to check all the available symbols that can be passed to this function.
With that granted, let us expand the example to actually change the
cursor
face’s background property. We employ the built-in function of
set-face-attribute
:
(set-face-attribute 'cursor nil :background (modus-themes-color 'blue))
If you evaluate this form, your cursor will become blue. But if you
change themes, such as with modus-themes-toggle
, your edits will be
lost, because the newly loaded theme will override the :background
attribute you had assigned to that face.
For such changes to persist, we need to make them after loading the
theme. So we rely on modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook
, which gets
called from modus-themes-load-operandi
, modus-themes-load-vivendi
, as
well as the command modus-themes-toggle
. Here is a sample function that
tweaks two faces and then gets added to the hook:
(defun my-modus-themes-custom-faces () (set-face-attribute 'cursor nil :background (modus-themes-color 'blue)) (set-face-attribute 'font-lock-type-face nil :foreground (modus-themes-color 'magenta-alt))) (add-hook 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook #'my-modus-themes-custom-faces)
A theme-agnostic hook for theme loading.
Using this principle, it is possible to override the styles of faces without having to find color values for each case.
Another application is to control the precise weight for bold
constructs. This is particularly useful if your typeface has several
variants such as “heavy”, “extrabold”, “semibold”. All you have to do
is edit the bold
face. For example:
(set-face-attribute 'bold nil :weight 'semibold)
Remember to use the custom function and hook combo we demonstrated above. Because the themes do not hard-wire a specific weight, this simple form is enough to change the weight of all bold constructs throughout the interface.
Finally, there are cases where you want to tweak colors though wish to
apply different ones to each theme, say, a blue hue for Modus Operandi
and a shade of red for Modus Vivendi. To this end, we provide
modus-themes-color-alts
as a convenience function to save you from the
trouble of writing separate wrappers for each theme. It still returns a
single value by querying either of modus-themes-operandi-colors
and
modus-themes-vivendi-colors
, only here you pass the two keys you want,
first for modus-operandi
then modus-vivendi
.
Take the previous example with the cursor
face:
;; Blue for `modus-operandi' and red for `modus-vivendi' (set-face-attribute 'cursor nil :background (modus-themes-color-alts 'blue 'red))
The examples here are for large scale operations. For simple, one-off tweaks, you may prefer the approach documented in the previous section (Case-by-case face specs using the themes’ palette).
The modus-themes-with-colors
macro lets you retrieve multiple color
values by employing the backquote/backtick and comma notation. The
values are stored in the alists modus-themes-operandi-colors
and
modus-themes-vivendi-colors
, while the macro always queries that of the
active Modus theme.
Here is an abstract example that just returns a list of color values
while modus-operandi
is enabled:
(modus-themes-with-colors (list fg-main blue-faint magenta magenta-alt-other cyan-alt-other fg-special-cold blue-alt magenta-faint cyan fg-main green-faint red-alt-faint blue-alt-faint fg-special-warm cyan-alt blue)) ;; => ;; ("#000000" "#002f88" "#721045" "#5317ac" ;; "#005a5f" "#093060" "#2544bb" "#752f50" ;; "#00538b" "#000000" "#104410" "#702f00" ;; "#003f78" "#5d3026" "#30517f" "#0031a9")
Getting a list of colors may have its applications, though what you are
most likely interested in is how to use those variables to configure
several faces at once. To do so we can rely on the built-in
custom-set-faces
function, which sets face specifications for the
special user
theme. That “theme” gets applied on top of regular themes
like modus-operandi
and modus-vivendi
.
This is how it works:
(modus-themes-with-colors (custom-set-faces `(cursor ((,class :background ,blue))) `(mode-line ((,class :background ,yellow-nuanced-bg :foreground ,yellow-nuanced-fg))) `(mode-line-inactive ((,class :background ,blue-nuanced-bg :foreground ,blue-nuanced-fg)))))
The above snippet will immediately refashion the faces it names once it
is evaluated. However, if you switch between the Modus themes, say,
from modus-operandi
to modus-vivendi
, the colors will not get updated to
match those of the new theme. To make things work across the themes, we
need to employ the same technique we discussed in the previous section,
namely, to pass our changes at the post-theme-load phase via a hook.
The themes provide the modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook
, which gets
called from modus-themes-load-operandi
, modus-themes-load-vivendi
, as
well as the command modus-themes-toggle
. With this knowledge, you can
wrap the macro in a function and then assign that function to the hook.
Thus:
(defun my-modus-themes-custom-faces () (modus-themes-with-colors (custom-set-faces `(cursor ((,class :background ,blue))) `(mode-line ((,class :background ,yellow-nuanced-bg :foreground ,yellow-nuanced-fg))) `(mode-line-inactive ((,class :background ,blue-nuanced-bg :foreground ,blue-nuanced-fg)))))) (add-hook 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook #'my-modus-themes-custom-faces)
A theme-agnostic hook for theme loading.
To discover the faces defined by all loaded libraries, you may do
M-x list-faces-display. Be warned that when you :inherit
a face
you are introducing an implicit dependency, so try to avoid doing so for
libraries other than the built-in faces.el (or at least understand
that things may break if you inherit from a yet-to-be-loaded face).
Also bear in mind that these examples are meant to work with the Modus themes. If you are cycling between multiple themes you may encounter unforeseen issues, such as the colors of the Modus themes being applied to a non-Modus item.
Finally, note that you can still use other functions where those make
sense. For example, the modus-themes-color-alts
that was discussed in
the previous section. Adapt the above example like this:
... (modus-themes-with-colors (custom-set-faces `(cursor ((,class :background ,(modus-themes-color-alts 'blue 'green)))) ...))
There are cases where we need to change the buffer-local attributes of a
face. This might be because we have our own minor mode that re-uses a
face for a particular purpose, such as a line selection tool that
activates hl-line-mode
, but we wish to keep it distinct from other
buffers. This is where face-remap-add-relative
can be applied and may
be combined with modus-themes-with-colors
to deliver consistent results.
Face specs at scale using the themes’ palette.
In this example we will write a simple interactive function that adjusts
the background color of the region
face. This is the sample code:
(defvar my-rainbow-region-colors (modus-themes-with-colors `((red . ,red-subtle-bg) (green . ,green-subtle-bg) (yellow . ,yellow-subtle-bg) (blue . ,blue-subtle-bg) (magenta . ,magenta-subtle-bg) (cyan . ,cyan-subtle-bg))) "Sample list of color values for `my-rainbow-region'.") (defun my-rainbow-region (color) "Remap buffer-local attribute of `region' using COLOR." (interactive (list (completing-read "Pick a color: " my-rainbow-region-colors))) (face-remap-add-relative 'region `( :background ,(alist-get (intern color) my-rainbow-region-colors) :foreground ,(face-attribute 'default :foreground))))
When my-rainbow-region
is called interactively, it prompts for a color
to use. The list of candidates is drawn from the car of each
association in my-rainbow-region-colors
(so “red”, “green”, etc.).
To extend this principle, we may write wrapper functions that pass a color directly. Those can be useful in tandem with hooks. Consider this example:
(defun my-rainbow-region-magenta () (my-rainbow-region 'magenta)) (add-hook 'diff-mode-hook #'my-rainbow-region-magenta)
Whenever we enter a diff-mode
buffer, we now get a magenta-colored
region.
Perhaps you may wish to generalize those findings in to a set of functions that also accept an arbitrary face. We shall leave the experimentation up to you.
Users may opt to customize individual faces of the themes to accommodate
their particular needs. One such case is with the color intensity of
comments, specifically the foreground of font-lock-comment-face
. The
Modus themes set that to a readable value, in accordance with their
accessibility objective, though users may prefer to lower the overall
contrast on an on-demand basis.
One way to achieve this is to design a command that cycles through three distinct levels of intensity, though the following can be adapted to any kind of cyclic behavior, such as to switch between red, green, and blue.
In the following example, we employ the modus-themes-color
function
which reads a symbol that represents an entry in the active theme’s
color palette (Case-by-case face specs using the themes’ palette).
Those are stored in my-modus-themes-comment-colors
.
(defvar my-modus-themes-comment-colors ;; We are abusing the palette here, as those colors have their own ;; purpose in the palette, so please ignore the semantics of their ;; names. '((low . bg-region) (medium . bg-tab-inactive-alt) (high . fg-alt)) "Alist of levels of intensity mapped to color palette entries. The entries are found in `modus-themes-operandi-colors' or `modus-themes-vivendi-colors'.") (defvar my-modus-themes--adjust-comment-color-state nil "The cyclic state of `my-modus-themes-adjust-comment-color'. For internal use.") (defun my-modus-themes--comment-foreground (degree state) "Set `font-lock-comment-face' foreground. Use `my-modus-themes-comment-colors' to extract the color value for each level of intensity. This is complementary to `my-modus-themes-adjust-comment-color'." (let ((palette-colors my-modus-themes-comment-colors)) (set-face-foreground 'font-lock-comment-face (modus-themes-color (alist-get degree palette-colors))) (setq my-modus-themes--adjust-comment-color-state state) (message "Comments are set to %s contrast" degree))) (defun my-modus-themes-adjust-comment-color () "Cycle through levels of intensity for comments. The levels are determined by `my-modus-themes-comment-colors'." (interactive) (pcase my-modus-themes--adjust-comment-color-state ('nil (my-modus-themes--comment-foreground 'low 1)) (1 (my-modus-themes--comment-foreground 'medium 2)) (_ (my-modus-themes--comment-foreground 'high nil))))
With the above, M-x my-modus-themes-adjust-comment-color will cycle through the three levels of intensity that have been specified.
Another approach is to not read from the active theme’s color palette and instead provide explicit color values, either in hexadecimal RGB notation (like ‘#123456’) or as the names that are displayed in the output of M-x list-colors-display. In this case, the alist with the colors will have to account for the active theme, so as to set the appropriate colors. While this introduces a bit more complexity, it ultimately offers greater flexibility on the choice of colors for such a niche functionality (so there is no need to abuse the palette of the active Modus theme):
(defvar my-modus-themes-comment-colors '((light . ((low . "gray75") (medium . "gray50") (high . "#505050"))) ; the default for `modus-operandi' (dark . ((low . "gray25") (medium . "gray50") (high . "#a8a8a8")))) ; the default for `modus-vivendi' "Alist of levels of intensity mapped to color values. For such colors, consult the command `list-colors-display'. Pass the name of a color or its hex value.") (defvar my-modus-themes--adjust-comment-color-state nil "The cyclic state of `my-modus-themes-adjust-comment-color'. For internal use.") (defun my-modus-themes--comment-foreground (degree state) "Set `font-lock-comment-face' foreground. Use `my-modus-themes-comment-colors' to extract the color value for each level of intensity. This is complementary to `my-modus-themes-adjust-comment-color'." (let* ((colors my-modus-themes-comment-colors) (levels (pcase (car custom-enabled-themes) ('modus-operandi (alist-get 'light colors)) ('modus-vivendi (alist-get 'dark colors))))) (set-face-foreground 'font-lock-comment-face (alist-get degree levels)) (setq my-modus-themes--adjust-comment-color-state state) (message "Comments are set to %s contrast" degree))) (defun my-modus-themes-adjust-comment-color () "Cycle through levels of intensity for comments. The levels are determined by `my-modus-themes-comment-colors'." (interactive) (pcase my-modus-themes--adjust-comment-color-state ('nil (my-modus-themes--comment-foreground 'low 1)) (1 (my-modus-themes--comment-foreground 'medium 2)) (_ (my-modus-themes--comment-foreground 'high nil))))
The effect of the above configurations on font-lock-comment-face
is
global. To make it buffer-local, one must tweak the code to employ the
function face-remap-add-relative
(Remap face with local value).
So this form in my-modus-themes--comment-foreground
:
;; example 1 (... (set-face-foreground 'font-lock-comment-face (modus-themes-color (alist-get degree palette-colors))) ...) ;; example 2 (... (set-face-foreground 'font-lock-comment-face (alist-get degree levels)) ...)
Must become this:
;; example 1 (... (face-remap-add-relative 'font-lock-comment-face `(:foreground ,(modus-themes-color (alist-get degree palette-colors)))) ...) ;; example 2 (... (face-remap-add-relative 'font-lock-comment-face `(:foreground ,(alist-get degree levels))) ...)
The themes provide a mechanism for overriding their color values. This
is controlled by the variables modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides
and
modus-themes-vivendi-color-overrides
, which are alists that should
mirror a subset of the associations in modus-themes-operandi-colors
and
modus-themes-vivendi-colors
respectively. As with all customisations,
overriding must be done before loading the affected theme.
Let us approach the present topic one step at a time. Here is a simplified excerpt of the default palette for Modus Operandi with some basic background values that apply to buffers and the mode line (remember to inspect the actual value to find out all the associations that can be overridden):
(defconst modus-themes-operandi-colors '((bg-main . "#ffffff") (bg-dim . "#f8f8f8") (bg-alt . "#f0f0f0") (bg-active . "#d7d7d7") (bg-inactive . "#efefef")))
As one can tell, we bind a key to a hexadecimal RGB color value. Now say we wish to override those specific values and have our changes propagate to all faces that use those keys. We could write something like this, which adds a subtle ochre tint:
(setq modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides '((bg-main . "#fefcf4") (bg-dim . "#faf6ef") (bg-alt . "#f7efe5") (bg-active . "#e8dfd1") (bg-inactive . "#f6ece5")))
Once this is evaluated, any subsequent loading of modus-operandi
will
use those values instead of the defaults. No further intervention is
required.
To reset the changes, we apply this and reload the theme:
(setq modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides nil)
Users who wish to leverage such a mechanism can opt to implement it on-demand by means of a global minor mode. The following snippet covers both themes and expands to some more assosiations in the palette:
(define-minor-mode my-modus-themes-tinted "Tweak some Modus themes colors." :init-value nil :global t (if my-modus-themes-tinted (setq modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides '((bg-main . "#fefcf4") (bg-dim . "#faf6ef") (bg-alt . "#f7efe5") (bg-hl-line . "#f4f0e3") (bg-active . "#e8dfd1") (bg-inactive . "#f6ece5") (bg-region . "#c6bab1") (bg-header . "#ede3e0") (bg-tab-bar . "#dcd3d3") (bg-tab-active . "#fdf6eb") (bg-tab-inactive . "#c8bab8") (fg-unfocused . "#55556f")) modus-themes-vivendi-color-overrides '((bg-main . "#100b17") (bg-dim . "#161129") (bg-alt . "#181732") (bg-hl-line . "#191628") (bg-active . "#282e46") (bg-inactive . "#1a1e39") (bg-region . "#393a53") (bg-header . "#202037") (bg-tab-bar . "#262b41") (bg-tab-active . "#120f18") (bg-tab-inactive . "#3a3a5a") (fg-unfocused . "#9a9aab"))) (setq modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides nil modus-themes-vivendi-color-overrides nil)))
With this in place, one can invoke M-x my-modus-themes-tinted and then load the Modus theme of their choice. The new palette subset will come into effect: subtle ochre tints for Modus Operandi and night sky shades for Modus Vivendi. Switching between the two themes, such as with M-x modus-themes-toggle will also use the overrides.
Given that this is a user-level customization, one is free to implement whatever color values they desire, even if the possible combinations fall below the minimum 7:1 contrast ratio that governs the design of the themes (the WCAG AAA legibility standard). Alternatively, this can also be done programmatically (Override color saturation).
For manual interventions it is advised to inspect the source code of
modus-themes-operandi-colors
and modus-themes-vivendi-colors
for the
inline commentary: it explains what the intended use of each palette
subset is.
Furthermore, users may benefit from the modus-themes-contrast
function
that we provide: test color combinations. It measures the contrast
ratio between two color values, so it can help in overriding the palette
(or a subset thereof) without making the end result inaccessible.
In the previous section we documented how one can override color values
manually (Override colors). Here we use a programmatic approach which
leverages the built-in color-saturate-name
function to adjust the
saturation of all color values used by the active Modus theme. Our goal
is to prepare a counterpart of the active theme’s palette that holds
modified color values, adjusted for a percent change in saturation. A
positive number amplifies the effect, while a negative one will move
towards a grayscale spectrum.
We start with a function that can be either called from Lisp or invoked
interactively. In the former scenario, we pass to it the rate of change
we want. While in the latter, a minibuffer prompt asks for a number to
apply the desired effect. In either case, we intend to assign anew the
value of modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides
(light theme) and the
same for modus-themes-vivendi-color-overrides
(dark theme).
(defun my-modus-themes-saturate (percent) "Saturate current Modus theme palette overrides by PERCENT." (interactive (list (read-number "Saturation by percent: "))) (let* ((theme (modus-themes--current-theme)) (palette (pcase theme ('modus-operandi modus-themes-operandi-colors) ('modus-vivendi modus-themes-vivendi-colors) (_ (error "No Modus theme is active")))) (overrides (pcase theme ('modus-operandi 'modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides) ('modus-vivendi 'modus-themes-vivendi-color-overrides) (_ (error "No Modus theme is active"))))) (let (name cons colors) (dolist (cons palette) (setq name (color-saturate-name (cdr cons) percent)) (setq name (format "%s" name)) (setq cons `(,(car cons) . ,name)) (push cons colors)) (set overrides colors)) (pcase theme ('modus-operandi (modus-themes-load-operandi)) ('modus-vivendi (modus-themes-load-vivendi))))) ;; sample Elisp calls (or call `my-modus-themes-saturate' interactively) (my-modus-themes-saturate 50) (my-modus-themes-saturate -75)
Using the above has an immediate effect, as it reloads the active Modus theme.
The ‘my-modus-themes-saturate’ function stores new color values in the
variables modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides
and
modus-themes-vivendi-color-overrides
, meaning that it undoes changes
implemented by the user on individual colors. To have both automatic
saturation adjustment across the board and retain per-case edits to the
palette, some tweaks to the above function are required. For example:
(defvar my-modus-themes-vivendi-extra-color-overrides '((fg-main . "#ead0c0") (bg-main . "#050515")) "My bespoke colors for `modus-vivendi'.") (defvar my-modus-themes-operandi-extra-color-overrides '((fg-main . "#1a1a1a") (bg-main . "#fefcf4")) "My bespoke colors for `modus-operandi'.") (defun my-modus-themes-saturate (percent) "Saturate current Modus theme palette overrides by PERCENT. Preserve the color values stored in `my-modus-themes-operandi-extra-color-overrides', `my-modus-themes-vivendi-extra-color-overrides'." (interactive (list (read-number "Saturation by percent: "))) (let* ((theme (modus-themes--current-theme)) (palette (pcase theme ('modus-operandi modus-themes-operandi-colors) ('modus-vivendi modus-themes-vivendi-colors) (_ (error "No Modus theme is active")))) (overrides (pcase theme ('modus-operandi 'modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides) ('modus-vivendi 'modus-themes-vivendi-color-overrides) (_ (error "No Modus theme is active")))) (extra-overrides (pcase theme ('modus-operandi my-modus-themes-operandi-extra-color-overrides) ('modus-vivendi my-modus-themes-vivendi-extra-color-overrides) (_ (error "No Modus theme is active"))))) (let (name cons colors) (dolist (cons palette) (setq name (color-saturate-name (cdr cons) percent)) (setq name (format "%s" name)) (setq cons `(,(car cons) . ,name)) (push cons colors)) (set overrides (append extra-overrides colors))) (pcase theme ('modus-operandi (modus-themes-load-operandi)) ('modus-vivendi (modus-themes-load-vivendi)))))
To disable the effect, one must reset the aforementioned variables of
the themes to nil
. Or specify a command for it, such as by taking
inspiration from the modus-themes-toggle
we already provide:
(defun my-modus-themes-revert-overrides () "Reset palette overrides and reload active Modus theme." (interactive) (setq modus-themes-operandi-color-overrides nil modus-themes-vivendi-color-overrides nil) (pcase (modus-themes--current-theme) ('modus-operandi (modus-themes-load-operandi)) ('modus-vivendi (modus-themes-load-vivendi))))
The themes are designed to cope well with mixed font configurations.
This mostly concerns org-mode
and markdown-mode
, though expect to find
it elsewhere like in Info-mode
.
In practice it means that the user can safely opt for a more
prose-friendly proportionately spaced typeface as their default, while
letting spacing-sensitive elements like tables and inline code always
use a monospaced font, by inheriting from the fixed-pitch
face.
Users can try the built-in M-x variable-pitch-mode to see the effect in action.
To make everything use your desired font families, you need to configure
the variable-pitch
(proportional spacing) and fixed-pitch
(monospaced)
faces respectively. It may also be convenient to set your main typeface
by configuring the default
face the same way.
Put something like this in your initialization file (also consider
reading the doc string of set-face-attribute
):
;; Main typeface (set-face-attribute 'default nil :family "DejaVu Sans Mono" :height 110) ;; Proportionately spaced typeface (set-face-attribute 'variable-pitch nil :family "DejaVu Serif" :height 1.0) ;; Monospaced typeface (set-face-attribute 'fixed-pitch nil :family "DejaVu Sans Mono" :height 1.0)
The next section shows how to make those work in a more elaborate setup that is robust to changes between the Modus themes.
Configure bold and italic faces.
Note the differences in the :height
property. The default
face must
specify an absolute value, which is the point size × 10. So if you want
to use a font at point size ‘11’, you set the height to ‘110’.1 Whereas every other face must have a value that is
relative to the default, represented as a floating point (if you use an
integer, then that means an absolute height). This is of paramount
importance: it ensures that all fonts can scale gracefully when using
something like the text-scale-adjust
command which only operates on the
base font size (i.e. the default
face’s absolute height).
Note for EWW and Elfeed fonts.
The Modus themes do not hardcode a :weight
or :slant
attribute in the
thousands of 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:
bold
use a
semibold weight.
italic
face.
To achieve those effects, one must first be sure that the fonts they use have support for those features. It then is a matter of following the instructions for all face tweaks.
Font configurations for Org and others.
In this example, we set the default font family to Fira Code, while we choose to render italics in the Hack typeface (obviously you need to pick fonts that work well together):
(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)
To ensure that the effects persist after switching between the Modus
themes (such as with M-x modus-themes-toggle), the user needs to
write their configurations to a function and hook it up to the
modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook
. This is necessary because the
themes set the default styles of faces (otherwise changing themes would
not be possible).
A theme-agnostic hook for theme loading.
This is a minimal setup to preserve font configurations across theme
load phases. For a more permanent setup, it is better to employ the
custom-set-faces
function: set-face-attribute
works just fine, though it
is more convenient for quick previews or for smaller scale operations
(custom-set-faces
follows the format used in the source code of the
themes).
;; our generic function (defun my-modes-themes-bold-italic-faces () (set-face-attribute 'default nil :family "Source Code Pro" :height 110) (set-face-attribute 'bold nil :weight 'semibold)) ;; or use this if you configure a lot of face and attributes and ;; especially if you plan to use `modus-themes-with-colors', as shown ;; elsewhere in the manual (defun my-modes-themes-bold-italic-faces () (custom-set-faces '(default ((t :family "Source Code Pro" :height 110))) '(bold ((t :weight semibold))))) ;; and here is the hook (add-hook 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook #'my-modes-themes-bold-italic-faces)
Users of org-mode
have the option to configure various keywords and
priority cookies to better match their workflow. User options are
org-todo-keyword-faces
and org-priority-faces
.
As those are meant to be custom faces, it is futile to have the themes guess what each user wants to use, which keywords to target, and so on. Instead, we can provide guidelines on how to customize things to one’s liking with the intent of retaining the overall aesthetic of the themes.
Please bear in mind that the end result of those is not controlled by
the active Modus theme but by how Org maps faces to its constructs.
Editing those while org-mode
is active requires re-initialization of the
mode with M-x org-mode-restart for changes to take effect.
Let us assume you wish to visually differentiate your keywords. You have something like this:
(setq org-todo-keywords '((sequence "TODO(t)" "|" "DONE(D)" "CANCEL(C)") (sequence "MEET(m)" "|" "MET(M)") (sequence "STUDY(s)" "|" "STUDIED(S)") (sequence "WRITE(w)" "|" "WROTE(W)")))
You could then use a variant of the following to inherit from a face
that uses the styles you want and also to preserve the properties
applied by the org-todo
face (in case there is a difference between the
two):
(setq org-todo-keyword-faces '(("MEET" . '(bold org-todo)) ("STUDY" . '(warning org-todo)) ("WRITE" . '(shadow org-todo))))
This will refashion the keywords you specify, while letting the other
items in org-todo-keywords
use their original styles (which are defined
in the org-todo
and org-done
faces).
If you want back the defaults, try specifying just the org-todo
face:
(setq org-todo-keyword-faces '(("MEET" . org-todo) ("STUDY" . org-todo) ("WRITE" . org-todo)))
When you inherit from multiple faces, you need to quote the list as
shown further above. The order is significant: the first entry is
applied on top of the second, overriding any properties that are
explicitly set for both of them: any property that is not specified is
not overridden, so, for example, if org-todo
has a background and a
foreground, while font-lock-type-face
only has a foreground, the merged
face will include the background of the former and the foreground of the
latter. If you do not want to blend multiple faces, you do not need a
quoted list. A pattern of ‘keyword . face’ will suffice.
Both approaches can be used simultaneously, as illustrated in this configuration of the priority cookies:
(setq org-priority-faces '((?A . '(bold org-priority)) (?B . org-priority) (?C . '(shadow org-priority))))
To find all the faces that are loaded in your current Emacs session, use M-x list-faces-display. Try M-x describe-variable as well and then specify the name of each of those Org variables demonstrated above. Their documentation strings will offer you further guidance.
Recall that the themes let you retrieve a color from their palette. Do it if you plan to control face attributes.
Custom face specs using the themes’ palette.
As noted in the section about modus-themes-org-blocks
, Org contains a
variable that determines whether the block’s begin and end lines are
extended to the edge of the window (Option for org-mode block styles).
The variable is org-fontify-whole-block-delimiter-line
.
Users who change the style of Org blocks from time to time may prefer to automatically update delimiter line fontification, such as with the following setup:
(defun my-modus-themes-org-fontify-block-delimiter-lines () "Match `org-fontify-whole-block-delimiter-line' to theme style. Run this function at the post theme load phase, such as with the `modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook'." (if (eq modus-themes-org-blocks 'gray-background) (setq org-fontify-whole-block-delimiter-line t) (setq org-fontify-whole-block-delimiter-line nil))) (add-hook 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook #'my-modus-themes-org-fontify-block-delimiter-lines)
Then M-x org-mode-restart for changes to take effect, though manual intervention can be circumvented by tweaking the function thus:
(defun my-modus-themes-org-fontify-block-delimiter-lines () "Match `org-fontify-whole-block-delimiter-line' to theme style. Run this function at the post theme load phase, such as with the `modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook'." (if (eq modus-themes-org-blocks 'gray-background) (setq org-fontify-whole-block-delimiter-line t) (setq org-fontify-whole-block-delimiter-line nil)) (when (derived-mode-p 'org-mode) (font-lock-flush)))
The themes provide the functions modus-themes-wcag-formula
and
modus-themes-contrast
. The former is a direct implementation of the
WCAG formula: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G18.html. It
calculates the relative luminance of a color value that is expressed in
hexadecimal RGB notation. While the latter function is just a
convenient wrapper for comparing the relative luminance between two
colors.
In practice, one needs to work only with modus-themes-contrast
. It
accepts two color values and returns their contrast ratio. Values range
from 1 to 21 (lowest to highest). The themes are designed to always be
equal or higher than 7 for each combination of background and foreground
that they use (this is the WCAG AAA standard—the most demanding of its
kind).
A couple of examples (rounded numbers):
;; Pure white with pure green (modus-themes-contrast "#ffffff" "#00ff00") ;; => 1.37 ;; That is an outright inaccessible combo ;; Pure black with pure green (modus-themes-contrast "#000000" "#00ff00") ;; => 15.3 ;; That is a highly accessible combo
It does not matter which color value comes first. The ratio is always the same.
If one does not wish to read all the decimal points, it is possible to try something like this:
(format "%0.2f" (modus-themes-contrast "#000000" "#00ff00"))
While it is fine to perform such calculations on a case-by-case basis,
it is preferable to implement formulas and tables for more demanding
tasks. Such instruments are provided by org-mode
or orgtbl-mode
, both
of which are built into Emacs. Below is such a table that derives the
contrast ratio of all colors in the first column (pure red, green, blue)
relative to the color specified in the first row of the second column
(pure white) and rounds the results:
| | #ffffff | |---------+---------| | #ff0000 | 4.00 | | #00ff00 | 1.37 | | #0000ff | 8.59 | #+tblfm: $2='(modus-themes-contrast $1 @1$2);%0.2f
To measure color contrast one needs to start from a known value. This typically is the background. The Modus themes define an expanded palette in large part because certain colors are only meant to be used in combination with some others. Consult the source code for the minutia and relevant commentary.
Such knowledge may prove valuable while attempting to override some of the themes’ colors: Override colors.
While we do provide modus-themes-toggle
to manually switch between the
themes, users may also set up their system to perform such a task
automatically at sunrise and sunset.
This can be accomplished by specifying the coordinates of one’s location using the built-in solar.el and then configuring the ‘circadian’ package:
(use-package solar ; built-in :config (setq calendar-latitude 35.17 calendar-longitude 33.36)) (use-package circadian ; you need to install this :ensure :after solar (setq circadian-themes '((:sunrise . modus-operandi) (:sunset . modus-vivendi))) (circadian-setup))
Most PDF files use a white background for their page, making it
impossible to discern the file’s boundaries in the buffer while using
the Modus Operandi theme. To introduce a distinction between the
buffer’s backdrop and the PDF page’s background, the former must be
rendered as some shade of gray. Ideally, pdf-tools
would provide a face
that the themes could support directly, though this does not seem to be
the case for the time being. We must thus employ the face remapping
technique that is documented elsewhere in this document to change the
buffer-local value of the default
face.
To remap the buffer’s backdrop, we start with a function like this one:
(defun my-pdf-tools-backdrop () (face-remap-add-relative 'default `(:background ,(modus-themes-color 'bg-alt)))) (add-hook 'pdf-tools-enabled-hook #'my-pdf-tools-backdrop)
The idea is to assign that function to a hook that gets called when
pdf-tools
renders the document: pdf-tools-enabled-hook
. This is enough
when you only use one theme. However it has the downside of setting the
background color value only at render time. In other words, the face
remapping function does not get evaluated anew whenever the theme
changes, such as upon invoking M-x modus-themes-toggle.
To have our face remapping adapt gracefully while switching between the
Modus themes, we need to also account for the current theme and control
the activation of pdf-view-midnight-minor-mode
. To which end we arrive
at something like the following, which builds on the above example:
(defun my-pdf-tools-backdrop () (face-remap-add-relative 'default `(:background ,(modus-themes-color 'bg-alt)))) (defun my-pdf-tools-midnight-mode-toggle () (when (derived-mode-p 'pdf-view-mode) (if (eq (car custom-enabled-themes) 'modus-vivendi) (pdf-view-midnight-minor-mode 1) (pdf-view-midnight-minor-mode -1)) (my-pdf-tools-backdrop))) (add-hook 'pdf-tools-enabled-hook #'my-pdf-tools-midnight-mode-toggle) (add-hook 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook #'my-pdf-tools-midnight-mode-toggle)
With those in place, PDFs have a distinct backdrop for their page, while
they automatically switch to their dark mode when modus-themes-toggle
is
called from inside a buffer whose major-mode is pdf-view-mode
.
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 modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook
,
which runs after modus-themes-toggle
, modus-themes-load-operandi
, or
modus-themes-load-vivendi
is evaluated. 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 Modus themes and other items will find that such a hook does not meet their requirements: it only works with the Modus themes and only with the aforementioned functions.
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
modus-themes-toggle
and the others mentioned above. enable-theme
is
called internally by load-theme
, so the hook works everywhere.
Now this specific piece of Elisp may be simple for experienced users, but it is not easy to read for newcomers, including the author of the Modus themes for the first several months of their time as an Emacs user. Hence our hesitation to recommend it as part of the standard setup of the Modus themes (it is generally a good idea to understand what the implications are of advising a function).
The Modus themes try to provide as close to full face coverage as possible. This is necessary to ensure a consistently accessible reading experience across all available interfaces.
This list will always be updated to reflect the current state of the project. The idea is to offer an overview of the known status of all affected face groups. The items with an appended asterisk ‘*’ tend to have lots of extensions, so the “full support” may not be 100% true…
vc-print-log
, vc-print-root-log
)
hes-mode
)
display-line-numbers-mode
and global variant)
adoc-mode
)
re-builder
)
Plus many other miscellaneous faces that are provided by the upstream GNU Emacs distribution.
These do not require any extra styles because they are configured to inherit from some basic faces or their dependencies which are directly supported by the themes.
This section covers information that may be of interest to users of individual packages.
Hints can appear everywhere, in wildly varying contexts, hence, their appearance, by necessity, is a compromise. However, there are various options for making them stand out. First is dimming the surroundings:
(setq avy-background t)
Dimming works well when you find it difficult to spot hints, any hint. Second is limiting the number of faces used by hints:
(setq avy-lead-faces '(avy-lead-face avy-lead-face-1 avy-lead-face-1 avy-lead-face-1 avy-lead-face-1))
Limiting the number of faces works well with longer hints when you find it difficult to identify individual hints, especially with hints touching each other. The first character of the hint will have an intense color, the remaining ones the same neutral color.
Third is preferring commands that produce fewer candidates. Fewer hints
is less noise: avy-goto-char-timer
is an excellent alternative to
avy-goto-char
.
By default, the M-x calendar interface differentiates weekdays from weekends by applying a gray color to the former and a faint red to the latter. The idea for this approach is that the weekend should serve as a subtle warning that no work is supposed to be done on that day, per the design of traditional calendars.
Users who prefer all days to look the same can configure the variable
calendar-weekend-days
to either use gray of weekdays or the faint red of
weekends uniformly.
;; All are treated like weekdays (gray color) (setq calendar-weekend-days nil) ;; All are treated like weekends (red-faint color) (setq calendar-weekend-days (number-sequence 0 6)) ;; The default marks the Saturday and Sunday as the weekend (setq calendar-weekend-days '(0 6))
For changes to take effect, the Calendar buffer needs to be generated anew.
Various buffers that produce compilation results or run tests on code apply an underline to the file names they reference or to relevant messages. Users may consider this unnecessary or excessive.
To outright disable the effect, use this:
(setq compilation-message-face nil)
If some element of differentiation is still desired, a good option is to
render the affected text using the italic
face:
(setq compilation-message-face 'italic)
Configure bold and italic faces.
Org can work with inline latex and related syntax. To actually fontify
those constructs, set the variable org-highlight-latex-and-related
to
the desired list of values (per its doc string). For example:
(setq org-highlight-latex-and-related '(latex script))
Remember to use M-x org-mode-restart for changes to take effect.
The dimmer.el library by Neil Okamoto can be configured to automatically dim the colors of inactive Emacs windows. To guarantee consistent results with the Modus themes, we suggest some tweaks to the default styles, such as in this minimal setup:
(use-package dimmer :config (setq dimmer-fraction 0.3) (setq dimmer-adjustment-mode :foreground) (setq dimmer-use-colorspace :rgb) (dimmer-mode 1))
Of the above, we strongly recommend the RGB color space because it is the one that remains faithful to the hueness of the colors used by the themes. Whereas the default CIELAB space has a tendency to distort colors in addition to applying the dim effect, which can be somewhat disorienting.
The value of the dimmer-fraction
has been selected empirically. Users
might prefer to tweak it further (increasing it makes the dim effect
more pronounced).
Changing the dimmer-adjustment-mode
is a matter of preference. Though
because the Modus themes use black and white as their base colors, any
other value for that variable will turn the main background gray. This
inadvertently leads to the opposite of the intended utility of this
package: it draws too much attention to unfocused windows.
While designing the style for display-fill-column-indicator-mode
, we
stayed close to the mode’s defaults: to apply a subtle foreground color
to the fill-column-indicator
face, which blends well with the rest of
theme and is consistent with the role of that mode. This is to not
upset the expectations of users.
Nevertheless, display-fill-column-indicator-mode
has some known
limitations pertaining to its choice of using typographic characters to
draw its indicator. What should be a continuous vertical line might
appear as a series of dashes in certain contexts or under specific
conditions: a non-default value for line-spacing
, scaled and/or
variable-pitch headings have been observed to cause this effect.
Given that we cannot control such factors, it may be better for affected
users to deviate from the default style of the fill-column-indicator
face. Instead of setting a foreground color, one could use a background
and have the foreground be indistinguishable from it. For example:
(modus-themes-with-colors (custom-set-faces `(fill-column-indicator ((,class :background ,bg-inactive :foreground ,bg-inactive)))))
Face specs at scale using the themes’ palette.
The ‘highlight-parentheses’ package provides contextual coloration of surrounding parentheses, highlighting only those which are around the point. The package expects users to customize the applicable colors on their own by configuring certain variables.
To make the Modus themes work as expected with this, we need to use some of the techniques that are discussed at length in the various “Do-It-Yourself” (DIY) sections, which provide insight into the more advanced customization options of the themes.
In the following example, we are assuming that the user wants to (i)
re-use color variables provided by the themes, (ii) be able to retain
their tweaks while switching between modus-operandi
and modus-vivendi
,
and (iii) have the option to highlight either the foreground of the
parentheses or the background as well.
We start by defining our own variable, which will serve as a toggle between foreground and background coloration styles:
(defvar my-highlight-parentheses-use-background t "Prefer `highlight-parentheses-background-colors'.")
Then we can update our preference with this:
;; Set to nil to disable backgrounds. (setq my-highlight-parentheses-use-background nil)
To re-use colors from the themes, we must wrap our code in the
modus-themes-with-colors
macro. Our implementation must interface with
the variables highlight-parentheses-background-colors
and/or
highlight-parentheses-colors
.
So we can have something like this (the doc string of
modus-themes-with-colors
explains where the names of the colors can be
found):
(modus-themes-with-colors ;; Our preference for setting either background or foreground ;; styles, depending on `my-highlight-parentheses-use-background'. (if my-highlight-parentheses-use-background ;; Here we set color combinations that involve both a background ;; and a foreground value. (setq highlight-parentheses-background-colors (list cyan-refine-bg magenta-refine-bg green-refine-bg yellow-refine-bg) highlight-parentheses-colors (list cyan-refine-fg magenta-refine-fg green-refine-fg yellow-refine-fg)) ;; And here we pass only foreground colors while disabling any ;; backgrounds. (setq highlight-parentheses-colors (list green-intense magenta-intense blue-intense red-intense) highlight-parentheses-background-colors nil))) ;; Include this if you also want to make the parentheses bold: (set-face-attribute 'highlight-parentheses-highlight nil :inherit 'bold) ;; Our changes must be evaluated before enabling the relevant mode, so ;; this comes last. (global-highlight-parentheses-mode 1)
For our changes to persist while switching between the Modus themes, we
need to include them in a function which can then get passed to
modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook
. This is the complete
implementation:
;; Configurations for `highlight-parentheses': (require 'highlight-parentheses) (defvar my-highlight-parentheses-use-background t "Prefer `highlight-parentheses-background-colors'.") (setq my-highlight-parentheses-use-background nil) ; Set to nil to disable backgrounds (defun my-modus-themes-highlight-parentheses () (modus-themes-with-colors ;; Our preference for setting either background or foreground ;; styles, depending on `my-highlight-parentheses-use-background'. (if my-highlight-parentheses-use-background ;; Here we set color combinations that involve both a background ;; and a foreground value. (setq highlight-parentheses-background-colors (list cyan-refine-bg magenta-refine-bg green-refine-bg yellow-refine-bg) highlight-parentheses-colors (list cyan-refine-fg magenta-refine-fg green-refine-fg yellow-refine-fg)) ;; And here we pass only foreground colors while disabling any ;; backgrounds. (setq highlight-parentheses-colors (list green-intense magenta-intense blue-intense red-intense) highlight-parentheses-background-colors nil))) ;; Include this if you also want to make the parentheses bold: (set-face-attribute 'highlight-parentheses-highlight nil :inherit 'bold) ;; Our changes must be evaluated before enabling the relevant mode, so ;; this comes last. (global-highlight-parentheses-mode 1)) (add-hook 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook #'my-modus-themes-highlight-parentheses)
The faces used by mmm-mode.el are expected to have a colorful background, while they should not touch any foreground value. The idea is that they must not interfere with existing fontification. Those background colors need to be distinct from each other, such as an unambiguous red juxtaposed with a clear blue.
While this design may be internally consistent with the raison d’être of that library, it inevitably produces inaccessible color combinations.
There are two competing goals at play:
As the Modus themes are designed with the express purpose of conforming with the first point, we have to forgo the apparent color-coding of the background elements. Instead we use subtle colors that do not undermine the legibility of the affected text while they still offer a sense of added context.
Users who might prefer to fall below the minimum 7:1 contrast ratio in relative luminance (the accessibility target we conform with), can opt to configure the relevant faces on their own.
Face specs at scale using the themes’ palette.
This example uses more vivid background colors, though it comes at the very high cost of degraded legibility.
(modus-themes-with-colors (custom-set-faces `(mmm-cleanup-submode-face ((,class :background ,yellow-refine-bg))) `(mmm-code-submode-face ((,class :background ,bg-active))) `(mmm-comment-submode-face ((,class :background ,blue-refine-bg))) `(mmm-declaration-submode-face ((,class :background ,cyan-refine-bg))) `(mmm-default-submode-face ((,class :background ,bg-alt))) `(mmm-init-submode-face ((,class :background ,magenta-refine-bg))) `(mmm-output-submode-face ((,class :background ,red-refine-bg))) `(mmm-special-submode-face ((,class :background ,green-refine-bg)))))
This package by Adam Porter, aka “alphapapa” or “github-alphapapa”, implements an alternative to the typical coloration of code. Instead of highlighting the syntactic constructs, it applies color to different levels of depth in the code structure.
As prism.el offers a broad range of customisations, we cannot style it directly at the theme level: that would run contrary to the spirit of the package. Instead, we may offer preset color schemes. Those should offer a starting point for users to adapt to their needs.
In the following code snippets, we employ the modus-themes-with-colors
macro: Face specs at scale using the themes’ palette.
These are the minimum recommended settings with 16 colors:
(setq prism-num-faces 16) (prism-set-colors :desaturations '(0) ; do not change---may lower the contrast ratio :lightens '(0) ; same :colors (modus-themes-with-colors (list fg-main magenta cyan-alt-other magenta-alt-other blue magenta-alt cyan-alt red-alt-other green fg-main cyan yellow blue-alt red-alt green-alt-other fg-special-warm)))
With 8 colors:
(setq prism-num-faces 8) (prism-set-colors :desaturations '(0) ; do not change---may lower the contrast ratio :lightens '(0) ; same :colors (modus-themes-with-colors (list blue magenta magenta-alt-other cyan-alt-other fg-main blue-alt red-alt-other cyan)))
And this is with 4 colors, which produces results that are the closest to the themes’ default aesthetic:
(setq prism-num-faces 4) (prism-set-colors :desaturations '(0) ; do not change---may lower the contrast ratio :lightens '(0) ; same :colors (modus-themes-with-colors (list blue magenta magenta-alt-other green-alt)))
If you need to apply desaturation and lightening, you can use what the prism.el documentation recommends, like this (adapting to the examples with the 4, 8, 16 colors):
(prism-set-colors :desaturations (cl-loop for i from 0 below 16 collect (* i 2.5)) :lightens (cl-loop for i from 0 below 16 collect (* i 2.5)) :colors (modus-themes-with-colors (list fg-main cyan-alt-other magenta-alt-other magenta)))
The god-mode
library does not provide faces that could be configured
by the Modus themes. Users who would like to get some visual feedback
on the status of M-x god-mode are instead encouraged by upstream
to set up their own configurations, such as by changing the mode-line
face (Advanced customization). This is an adaptation of the approach
followed in the upstream README:
(defun my-god-mode-update-mode-line () "Make `mode-line' blue if God local mode is active." (modus-themes-with-colors (if god-local-mode (set-face-attribute 'mode-line nil :foreground blue-active :background bg-active-accent :box blue) (set-face-attribute 'mode-line nil :foreground fg-active :background bg-active :box fg-alt)))) (add-hook 'post-command-hook 'my-god-mode-update-mode-line)
We employ the modus-themes-with-colors
which provides access to color
variables defined by the active theme. Its use is covered elsewhere in
this manual (Face specs at scale using the themes’ palette). As for the
attributes that can be passed to each face, start by consulting the
documentation string of set-face-attribute
.
By default, the company-mode
pop-up that lists completion candidates is
drawn using an overlay. This creates alignment issues every time it is
placed above a piece of text that has a different height than the
default.
The solution recommended by the project’s maintainer is to use an alternative front-end for drawing the pop-up which draws child frames instead of overlays.23
The built-in IRC client erc
has the ability to colorise any text using
escape sequences that start with ‘^C’ (inserted with C-q C-c) and are
followed by a number for the foreground and background.4 Possible numbers are 0-15, with the
first entry being the foreground and the second the background,
separated by a comma. Like this ‘^C1,6’. The minimum setup is this:
(add-to-list 'erc-modules 'irccontrols) (setq erc-interpret-controls-p t erc-interpret-mirc-color t)
As this allows users the chance to make arbitrary combinations, it is impossible to guarantee a consistently high contrast ratio. All we can we do is provide guidance on the combinations that satisfy the accessibility standard of the themes:
Use foreground color 1 for all backgrounds from 2-15. Like so: C-q C-c1 where ‘N’ is the background.
Use foreground color 0 for all backgrounds from 2-13. Use foreground ‘1’ for backgrounds 14, 15.
Colors 0 and 1 are white and black respectively. So combine them together, if you must.
Both Powerline and Spaceline package users will likely need to use the
command powerline-reset
whenever they make changes to their themes
and/or mode line setup.
Emacs’ HTML rendering library (shr.el) may need explicit configuration to respect the theme’s colors instead of whatever specifications the webpage provides.
Consult C-h v shr-use-colors.
EWW and Elfeed rely on the Simple HTML Renderer to display their
content. The shr.el library contains the variable shr-use-fonts
that controls whether the text in the buffer is set to a variable-pitch
typeface (proportionately spaced) or if just retains whatever the
default font family is. Its default value is non-nil, which means that
variable-pitch
is applied.
Font configurations for Org and others.
There is one face from the Helm package that is meant to highlight the
matches of a grep or grep-like command (‘ag’ or ‘ripgrep’). It is
helm-grep-match
. However, this face can only apply when the user does
not pass ‘--color=always’ as a command-line option for their command.
Here is the docstring for that face, which is defined in the helm-grep.el library (you can always visit the source code with M-x find-library).
Face used to highlight grep matches. Have no effect when grep backend use “–color=”
The user must either remove ‘--color’ from the flags passed to the grep
function, or explicitly use ‘--color=never’ (or equivalent). Helm
provides user-facing customization options for controlling the grep
function’s parameters, such as helm-grep-default-command
and
helm-grep-git-grep-command
.
When ‘--color=always’ is in effect, the grep output will use red text in
bold letter forms to present the matching part in the list of
candidates. That style still meets the contrast ratio target of >= 7:1
(accessibility standard WCAG AAA), because it draws the reference to
ANSI color number 1 (red) from the already-supported array of
ansi-color-names-vector
.
Due to the unique way vc-annotate
(C-x v g) applies colors, support
for its background mode (vc-annotate-background-mode
) is disabled at the
theme level.
Normally, such a drastic measure should not belong in a theme: assuming the user’s preferences is bad practice. However, it has been deemed necessary in the interest of preserving color contrast accessibility while still supporting a useful built-in tool.
If there actually is a way to avoid such a course of action, without prejudice to the accessibility standard of this project, then please report as much or send patches (Contributing).
Hints are drawn by ImageMagick, not Emacs, i.e., ImageMagick doesn’t
know about the hint face unless you tell ImageMagick about it. By
default, only the foreground and background color attributes are
passed. The below snippet adds to those the various font attributes. As
it queries various faces, specifically pdf-links-read-link
and the faces
it inherits, it needs to be added to your initialization file after
you’ve customized any faces.
(use-package pdf-links :config (let ((spec (apply #'append (mapcar (lambda (name) (list name (face-attribute 'pdf-links-read-link name nil 'default))) '(:family :width :weight :slant))))) (setq pdf-links-read-link-convert-commands `("-density" "96" "-family" ,(plist-get spec :family) "-stretch" ,(let* ((width (plist-get spec :width)) (name (symbol-name width))) (replace-regexp-in-string "-" "" (capitalize name))) "-weight" ,(pcase (plist-get spec :weight) ('ultra-light "Thin") ('extra-light "ExtraLight") ('light "Light") ('semi-bold "SemiBold") ('bold "Bold") ('extra-bold "ExtraBold") ('ultra-bold "Black") (_weight "Normal")) "-style" ,(pcase (plist-get spec :slant) ('italic "Italic") ('oblique "Oblique") (_slant "Normal")) "-pointsize" "%P" "-undercolor" "%f" "-fill" "%b" "-draw" "text %X,%Y '%c'"))))
In this section we provide answers related to some aspects of the Modus themes’ design and application.
The minimum contrast ratio in relative luminance that the themes conform with always refers to any given combination of background and foreground colors. If we have some blue colored text next to a magenta one, both against a white background, we do not mean to imply that blue:magenta is 7:1 in terms of relative luminance. Rather, we state that blue:white and magenta:white each are 7:1 or higher.
The point of reference is always the background. Because colors have about the same minimum distance in luminance from their backdrop, they necessarily are fairly close to each other in this measure. A possible blue:magenta combination would naturally be around 1:1 in contrast of the sort here considered.
To differentiate between sequential colors, we rely on hueness by mapping contrasting hues to adjacent constructs, while avoiding exaggerations. A blue next to a magenta can be told apart regardless of their respective contrast ratio against their common background. Exceptions would be tiny characters in arguably not so realistic cases, such as two dots drawn side-by-side which for some reason would need to be colored differently. They would still be legible though, which is the primary objective of the Modus themes.
The Modus themes are designed with restraint, so that their default looks do not overdo it with the application of color.
This is the non-quantifiable aspect of the themes’ design: the artistic part, if you will. There are a lot of cases where color can be used inconsiderately, without accounting for layout, typographic, or other properties of the presentation. For example, two headings with distinct markers, such as leading asterisks in Org buffers, do not have to have highly contrasting hues between them in order to be told apart: the added element of contrast in hueness does not contribute significantly more to the distinction between the headings than colors whose hues are relatively closer to each other in the color space.
Exaggerations can be hard to anticipate or identify. Multiple shades of blue and magenta in the same context may not seem optimal: one might think that it would be better to use highly contrasting hues to ensure that all colors stand out, such as by placing blue next to yellow, next to magenta, and green. That would, however, be a case of design for its own sake; a case where color is being applied without consideration of its end results in the given context. Too many contrasting hues in close proximity force an erratic rate to how the eye jumps from one piece of text to the next. Whereas multiple shades of, say, blue and magenta can suffice to tell things apart and avoid excess coloration: a harmonious rhythm.
Due to the innate properties of color, some options are better than
others for the accessibility purposes of the themes, the stylistic
consistency between modus-operandi
and modus-vivendi
, and the avoidance
of exaggerations in design.
What does it mean to avoid exaggerations?
What we describe as color is a function of three distinct channels of light: red, green, blue. In hexadecimal RGB notation, a color value is read as three pairs of red, green, and blue light: ‘#RRGGBB’. Of those three, the most luminant is green, while the least luminant is blue.
The three basic colors represent each of the channels of light. They can be intermixed to give us six colors: red and green derive yellow, green and blue make cyan, red and blue turn into magenta.
We can test the luminance of each of those against white and black to get a sense of how not all colors are equally good for accessibility (white is ‘#ffffff’, which means that all three light channels are fully luminated, while black is ‘#000000’ meaning that no light is present (notwithstanding display technology)).
| Name | | #ffffff | #000000 | |---------+---------+---------+---------| | red | #ff0000 | 4.00 | 5.25 | | yellow | #ffff00 | 1.07 | 19.56 | | green | #00ff00 | 1.37 | 15.30 | | cyan | #00ffff | 1.25 | 16.75 | | blue | #0000ff | 8.59 | 2.44 | | magenta | #ff00ff | 3.14 | 6.70 |
By reading this table we learn that every color that has a high level of green light (green, yellow, cyan) is virtually unreadable against a white background and, conversely, can be easily read against black.
We can then infer that red and blue, in different combinations, with green acting as calibrator for luminance, will give us fairly moderate colors that pass the 7:1 target. Blue with a bit of green produce appropriate variants of cyan. Similarly, blue combined with some red and hints of green give us suitable shades of purple.
Due to the need of maintaining some difference in hueness between adjacent colors, it is not possible to make red, green, and yellow the primary colors, because blue could not be used to control their luminance and, thus the relevant space would shrink considerably.
Is the contrast ratio about adjacent colors?
This phenomenon is best illustrated by the following table that measures the relative luminance of shades of red, yellow, magenta against white:
| | #ffffff | |---------+---------| | #990000 | 8.92 | | #995500 | 5.75 | | #990099 | 7.46 |
We notice that equal values of red and blue light in ‘#990099’ (magenta shade) do not lead to a considerable change in luminance compared with ‘#990000’ (red variant). Whereas less amount of green light in ‘#995500’ leads to a major drop in luminance relative to white. It follows that using the green channel of light to calibrate the luminance of colors is more effective than trying to do the same with either red or blue (the latter is the least effective in that regard).
When we need to work with several colors, it is always better to have sufficient manoeuvring space, especially since we cannot pick arbitrary colors but only those that satisfy the accessibility objectives of the themes.
As for why we do not mostly use green, yellow, cyan for the dark theme,
it is because those colors are far more luminant than their counterparts
on the other side of the spectrum, so to ensure that they all have about
the same contrast ratios we would have to alter their hueness
considerably. In short, the effect would not be optimal as it would
lead to exaggerations. Plus, it would make modus-vivendi
look
completely different than modus-operandi
, to the effect that the two
could not be properly considered part of the same project.
The Modus themes can be conceptually simplified as combinations of color values that account for relative luminance and inner harmony. Those qualities do not guarantee that every end-user will have the same experience, due to differences between people, but also because of variances in hardware capabilities and configurations. For the purposes of this document, we may only provide suggestions pertaining to the latter case.
modus-operandi
is best used outdoors or in a room that either gets
direct sunlight or has plenty of light. Whereas modus-vivendi
works
better when there is not a lot of sunshine or the room has a source of
light that is preferably a faint and/or warm one. It is possible to use
modus-operandi
at night and modus-vivendi
during the day, though that
will depend on several variables, such as one’s overall perception of
color, the paint on the walls and how that contributes to the impression
of lightness in the room, the sense of space within the eye’s peripheral
vision, hardware specifications, and environmental factors.
In general, an additional source of light other than that of the monitor can help reduce eye strain: the eyes are more relaxed when they do not have to focus on one point to gather light.
The monitor’s display settings must be accounted for. Gamma values, in particular, need to be calibrated to neither amplify nor distort the perception of black. Same principle for sharpness, brightness, and contrast as determined by the hardware, which all have an effect on how text is read on the screen.
There are software level methods on offer, such as the XrandR utility for the X Window System (X.org), which can make gamma corrections for each of the three channels of light (red, green, blue). For example:
xrandr --output LVDS1 --brightness 1.0 --gamma 0.76:0.75:0.68
Typography is another variable. Some font families are blurry at small point sizes. Others may have a regular weight that is lighter (thiner) than that of their peers which may, under certain circumstances, cause a halo effect around each glyph.
The gist is that legibility cannot be fully solved at the theme level. The color combinations may have been optimized for accessibility, though the remaining contributing factors in each case need to be considered in full.
This section documents the canonical sources of the themes and the ways in which you can contribute to their ongoing development.
The modus-operandi
and modus-vivendi
themes are built into Emacs 28.
The source code of the themes is available on Gitlab, for the time being. A mirror on Github is also on offer.
An HTML version of this manual is provided as an extension of the author’s personal website (does not rely on any non-free code).
A few tasks you can help with:
Patches require copyright assignment to the FSF.
It is preferable that your feedback includes some screenshots, GIFs, or short videos, as well as further instructions to reproduce a given setup. Though this is not a requirement.
Whatever you do, bear in mind the overarching objective of the Modus themes: to keep a contrast ratio that is greater or equal to 7:1 between background and foreground colors. If a compromise is ever necessary between aesthetics and accessibility, it shall always be made in the interest of the latter.
Code contributions are most welcome. For any major edit (more than 15 lines, or so, in aggregate per person), you need to make a copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation. This is necessary because the themes are part of the upstream Emacs distribution: the FSF must at all times be in a position to enforce the GNU General Public License.
Copyright assignment is a simple process. Check the request form below (please adapt it accordingly). You must write an email to the address mentioned in the form and then wait for the FSF to send you a legal agreement. Sign the document and file it back to them. This could all happen via email and take about a week. You are encouraged to go through this process. You only need to do it once. It will allow you to make contributions to Emacs in general.
Please email the following information to assign@gnu.org, and we will send you the assignment form for your past and future changes. Please use your full legal name (in ASCII characters) as the subject line of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- REQUEST: SEND FORM FOR PAST AND FUTURE CHANGES [What is the name of the program or package you're contributing to?] GNU Emacs [Did you copy any files or text written by someone else in these changes? Even if that material is free software, we need to know about it.] Copied a few snippets from the same files I edited. Their author, Protesilaos Stavrou, has already assigned copyright to the Free Software Foundation. [Do you have an employer who might have a basis to claim to own your changes? Do you attend a school which might make such a claim?] [For the copyright registration, what country are you a citizen of?] [What year were you born?] [Please write your email address here.] [Please write your postal address here.] [Which files have you changed so far, and which new files have you written so far?]
The Modus themes are a collective effort. Every bit of work matters.
Protesilaos Stavrou.
Anders Johansson, Basil L. Contovounesios, Carlo Zancanaro, Eli Zaretskii, Fritz Grabo, Kévin Le Gouguec, Kostadin Ninev, Madhavan Krishnan, Markus Beppler, Matthew Stevenson, Mauro Aranda, Nicolas De Jaeghere, Philip Kaludercic, Rudolf Adamkovič, Stephen Gildea, Shreyas Ragavan, Stefan Kangas, Vincent Murphy, Xinglu Chen.
Aaron Jensen, Adam Porter, Adam Spiers, Adrian Manea, Alex Griffin, Alex Peitsinis, Alexey Shmalko, Alok Singh, Anders Johansson, André Alexandre Gomes, Arif Rezai, Basil L. Contovounesios, Burgess Chang, Christian Tietze, Christopher Dimech, Damien Cassou, Daniel Mendler, Dario Gjorgjevski, David Edmondson, Davor Rotim, Divan Santana, Eliraz Kedmi, Emanuele Michele Alberto Monterosso, Farasha Euker, Feng Shu, Gautier Ponsinet, Gerry Agbobada, Gianluca Recchia, Gustavo Barros, Hörmetjan Yiltiz, Ilja Kocken, Iris Garcia, Jeremy Friesen, Jerry Zhang, John Haman, Joshua O’Connor, Kevin Fleming, Kévin Le Gouguec, Kostadin Ninev, Len Trigg, Manuel Uberti, Mark Burton, Markus Beppler, Mauro Aranda, Michael Goldenberg, Morgan Smith, Murilo Pereira, Nicky van Foreest, Nicolas De Jaeghere, Paul Poloskov, Pengji Zhang, Pete Kazmier, Peter Wu, Philip Kaludercic, Pierre Téchoueyres, Roman Rudakov, Ryan Phillips, Rudolf Adamkovič, Sam Kleinman, Shreyas Ragavan, Simon Pugnet, Tassilo Horn, Thibaut Verron, Thomas Heartman, Trey Merkley, Togan Muftuoglu, Toon Claes, Uri Sharf, Utkarsh Singh, Vincent Foley. As well as users: Ben, CsBigDataHub1, Emacs Contrib, Eugene, Fourchaux, Fredrik, Moesasji, Nick, TheBlob42, Trey, bepolymathe, doolio, fleimgruber, iSeeU, jixiuf, okamsn, pRot0ta1p.
Basil L. Contovounesios, Eli Zaretskii, Glenn Morris, Mauro Aranda, Richard Stallman, Stefan Kangas (core Emacs), Stefan Monnier (GNU Elpa), André Alexandre Gomes, Dimakakos Dimos, Morgan Smith, Nicolas Goaziou (Guix), Dhavan Vaidya (Debian).
Bozhidar Batsov (zenburn-theme), Fabrice Niessen (leuven-theme).
Special thanks, in no particular order, to Manuel Uberti, Gustavo Barros, and Omar Antolín Camarena for their long time contributions and insightful commentary.
If you are curious about the principles that govern the development of this project read the essay On the design of the Modus themes (2020-03-17).
Here are some more publications for those interested in the kind of work that goes into this project (sometimes the commits also include details of this sort):
And here are the canonical sources of this project’s documentation:
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:height
values do not need to be rounded to multiples of ten: the likes of ‘115’
are perfectly valid—some typefaces will change to account for those
finer increments.
https://github.com/company-mode/company-mode/issues/1010
https://github.com/tumashu/company-posframe/
This page explains the basics, though it is not specific to Emacs: https://www.mirc.com/colors.html