Is there a straightforward way to make all text with a given face invisible? I don't believe I can make invisibility be intrinsic to the face, but can I perhaps specify a minor mode that makes sure all appropriate text is invisible?
By "invisible" here I mean the text works as if you'd set the invisible property, so the text in question doesn't even take up an horizontal space.
OK, here's a simple demonstration of @Lindydancer's technique, which in this case turns the whole buffer invisible.
(defun my-mode () "my-mode" (interactive)
(kill-all-local-variables)
(make-local-variable 'font-lock-defaults)
(setq font-lock-defaults '(my-mode-font-lock-keywords t)))
(defvar my-mode-font-lock-keywords nil
"Keywords/Regexp for fontlocking of my-mode")
(setq my-mode-font-lock-keywords
(list
'(".*" 0
(progn (add-text-properties (match-beginning 0)
(match-end 0)
'(invisible t))
'bold))))
(add-to-list 'font-lock-extra-managed-props 'invisible)
'invisible since that is the property Emacs use to hide text. the :xxx form is used to specify face properties (I got them mixed up).
Commented
Jun 22, 2015 at 20:17
'default:background.:invisible. Instead of a plain face name, you can use a code block, which should return the name of the face to apply. This code block can contain side effects, like(set-property ...). Also, you will need to include:invisibleinfont-lock-extra-managed-props.