How do I get my initial frame to be the desired size?

Question

I have the following in my .emacs file:

    (when window-system
      (set-frame-position (selected-frame) 0 0)
      (set-frame-size (selected-frame) 91 63))

The value of 63 is supposed to make my initial frame take up the full vertical height of my screen.

However, the result is not actually a frame of 91x63. Instead, I get a frame of only 51. Likewise, increasing 63 to 70 doesn't get me a taller frame either. Initially, I see the frame popup with the full screen height, but then it shrinks down to a much smaller size. I believe this may be related to the fact that I have a configured font face and font size and the frame size is taking effect before the font size is set. So when the frame size is initially set, the frame is too large to fit on the screen so the size is shrunk and then later the font face and size are set, but now there is enough room to grow the frame. Do I need to some how control the order of these settings? If so, how do I do that? Currently, I have the font face and size set in the custom-set-faces block. Is there a better way to change the frame size so that it happens after the font face is set?

By the way, this code came from the Emacs wiki on Frame Size.

This is under Ubuntu Linux, and I'm using the PPA for Emacs 24. I am not using any Xresources.

For reference, here's my custom-set-faces block:

    (custom-set-faces
     '(default ((t (:inherit nil
            :stipple nil
            :background "white"
            :foreground "black"
            :inverse-video nil
            :box nil
            :strike-through nil
            :overline nil
            :underline nil
            :slant normal
            :weight normal
            :height 95
            :width normal
            :foundry "unknown"
            :family "DejaVu Sans Mono")))))

Answer 1

Since this is being caused by changing the default font/size during init, one can avoid this problem by setting the font via X resources

Add to (creating if necessary) the file ~/.Xresources in the home directory the following line

 Emacs.font: DejaVu Sans Mono-12

Emacs will normally pick up the change once X has restarted. However, one can get X to recognize changes to .Xresources by running xrdb ~/.Xresources in a command-line.

Alternately, one can pass the same option at the command line using:

emacs --font="DejaVu Sans Mono-12"

Answer 2

This is essentially an addendum to Vamsi's answer which I have discovered after the fact.

From the documentation on initial-frame-alist, it says the following:

You can specify geometry-related options for just the initial frame by setting this variable in your init file; however, they won't take effect until Emacs reads your init file, which happens after creating the initial frame. If you want the initial frame to have the proper geometry as soon as it appears, you need to use this three-step process:

• Specify X resources to give the geometry you want.
• Set default-frame-alist to override these options so that they don't affect subsequent frames.
• Set initial-frame-alist in a way that matches the X resources, to override what you put in default-frame-alist.

This implies that you must modify ~/.Xresources in order to get consistent behavior for the initial frame. Otherwise, the window bounces around on startup, which is the behavior that I'm seeing.

Just to round out my final solution.

I'm still using this in my init file:

(when window-system
  (set-frame-position (selected-frame) 0 0)
  (set-frame-size (selected-frame) 91 63))

As well as this:

(custom-set-faces
 '(default ((t (:inherit nil :stipple nil :background "white" :foreground "black" :inverse-video nil :box nil :strike-through nil :overline nil :underline nil :slant normal :weight normal :height 95 :width normal :foundry "unknown" :family "DejaVu Sans Mono")))))

But also setting this in my ~/.Xresources as pointed out by Vamsi:

Emacs.font: DejaVu Sans Mono-9.5

And being sure to run xrdb after the fact.

Answer 3

If you really mean the initial frame, then see option initial-frame-alist. In particular, see this part of the doc string:

You can specify geometry-related options for just the initial
frame by setting this variable in your init file; however, they
won't take effect until Emacs reads your init file, which happens
after creating the initial frame.  If you want the initial frame
to have the proper geometry as soon as it appears, you need to
use this three-step process:

* Specify X resources to give the geometry you want.
* Set `default-frame-alist' to override these options so that they
  don't affect subsequent frames.
* Set `initial-frame-alist' in a way that matches the X resources,
  to override what you put in `default-frame-alist'.

And this part of (elisp) Initial Parameters about the same option:

 If these settings affect the frame geometry and appearance, you'll
 see the frame appear with the wrong ones and then change to the
 specified ones.  If that bothers you, you can specify the same
 geometry and appearance with X resources; those do take effect
 before the frame is created.  *Note X Resources: (emacs)X
 Resources.

 X resource settings typically apply to all frames.  If you want to
 specify some X resources solely for the sake of the initial frame,
 and you don't want them to apply to subsequent frames, here's how
 to achieve this.  Specify parameters in `default-frame-alist' to
 override the X resources for subsequent frames; then, to prevent
 these from affecting the initial frame, specify the same
 parameters in `initial-frame-alist' with values that match the X
 resources.

If you mean only frames after the initial frame then see option default-frame-alist.

Both of these options let you configure any frame parameters, including font, so you can control the font size. (You can also customize face default.)

You can customize user options (M-x customize-option), but for these options you will need to be sure that your customizations take effect before the frame gets displayed.

Answer 4

In addition to the answers given so far, if your immediate goal is to make sure emacs opens up at the full height, you can set the fullscreen parameter of either the default-frame-alist or the initial-frame-alist, depending on whether or not you want all your frames to open at the full height, or just the first one:

(add-to-list 'initial-frame-alist '(fullscreen . fullheight))
(add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(fullscreen . fullheight))

Answer 5

The font size will affect the size of the window at startup, this problem occurred to me when I start to configure it for different screen resolution(home and work use, I put the configuration in Github) months ago. Actually, you can set the size of the window and font at the same time, here is the solution.

---

(defun set-frame-size-according-to-resolution ()
  (interactive)
  (if window-system
      (progn
        ;; use 120 char wide window for largish displays
        ;; and smaller 80 column windows for smaller displays
        ;; pick whatever numbers make sense for you
        (if (> (x-display-pixel-width) 1500)
            (setq default-frame-alist
                  '((top . 0)(left . 0)
                    (width . 85)(height . 48)
                    (font . "Menlo-13")
                    ))
          (setq default-frame-alist
                '((top . 0)(left . 0)
                  (width . 85)(height . 35)
                  (font . "Menlo-13")
                  )))
        ))
)
(set-frame-size-according-to-resolution)

---

Adjust the 1500, top/left width/height, font/font-size as you like. Remove the resolution related if you use only one (same resolution)screen, use only the setq default-frame-alist part.

Answer 6

I'm running GNU Emacs 25.1.1 on Windows 10.

This works for me:

In the ~/.emacs file, I put:

(when window-system
  (set-frame-position (selected-frame) 0 550) ;; 0 - left edge at left of monitor; 550 - top about halfway down the monitor
  (set-frame-size (selected-frame) 115 13)) ;; 115 - width full width of monitor; 13 - puts bottom at top of taskbar