some set-face-attribute not being applied when I create a new frame using C-x 5 2

Question

I've a few set-face-attribute statements inside eval-after-load blocks inside my zenburn theme configuration. These are working fine when I startup emacs using emacsclient. But, when I create a new frame using C-x 5 2, the statements inside eval-after-load are not applied for the new frame.

My theme config for reference. As a workaround, I create new frames using emacsclient command on the terminal. But I'd not like to do this. Is there any way I fix this problem?

Install zenburn-theme and golden-ratio-scroll-screen and open emacs -Q and run the below steps to reproduce the problem:

(package-initialize)
(require 'zenburn-theme)
(require 'golden-ratio-scroll-screen)
(load-theme 'zenburn t)
(set-face-attribute 'golden-ratio-scroll-highlight-line-face nil
                         :background nil :foreground nil)

Now open any file, and run golden-ratio-scroll-screen-up or golden-ratio-scroll-screen-down and observe the face of the current line as it moves up/down. Now enter C-x 5 2 to create a new frame and run golden-ratio-scroll-screen-up and now you can see that the face settings you applied previously are gone and it has reverted back to its default face settings.

My emacs environment:

Emacs version: GNU Emacs 27.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-apple-darwin17.6.0, NS appkit-1561.40 Version 10.13.5 (Build 17F77))
 of 2018-06-21, built using commit 5583e6460c38c5d613e732934b066421349a5259.

./configure options:
  --disable-dependency-tracking --disable-silent-rules --enable-locallisppath=/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp --infodir=/usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD-5583e64_1/share/info/emacs --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD-5583e64_1 --with-gnutls --without-x --with-xml2 --with-dbus --with-imagemagick --with-modules --with-rsvg --without-pop --with-ns --disable-ns-self-contained

Features:
  RSVG IMAGEMAGICK DBUS NOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS NS MODULES THREADS

Answer 1

I'm going to take a guess. Now I don't know why set-face-attributes wouldn't work across all frames, but try:

(custom-theme-set-faces
     'zenburn
     '(face-settings ((t (:inherit 'default)))))

This is assuming zenburn is the official name of the theme (1). What this does is explicitly tells emacs that these settings are part of the zenburn's theme. If that doesn't work I suggest you follow Drew's suggestion and try to create a step-by-step recreation of loading the theme adding the bit of code and seeing if it recreates the problem. By the way your github returns a 404 for me.

1. You can find the official name by just doing M-x load-theme and let tab or auto complete show you the available themes.

Edit: Using your example I can repeat the problem. However if I do:

(package-initialize)
(require 'zenburn-theme)
(require 'golden-ratio-scroll-screen)
(load-theme 'zenburn t)
(custom-theme-set-faces
 'zenburn
 '(golden-ratio-scroll-highlight-line-face
   ((t ((:background nil :foreground nil))))))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-v") 'golden-ratio-scroll-screen-up)

It does not show a little highlight thing when you scroll down/make a new frame. I believe this should work with your current defun setup. I'm not sure why it doesn't (your init.el looks really nice and organized by the way), either way let me know at least if your results in a new emacs -Q matches mine. Switching themes is such a pain...

Edit: From the comments below:

 (set-face-foreground 'golden-ratio-scroll-highlight-line-face nil) 
 (set-face-background 'golden-ratio-scroll-highlight-line-face nil)

And here are the rest of the functions in case you want to change other faces with different attributes. Reading the source of that function I believe the main problem was the nil funny enough, changing your original answer to

 (set-face-attribute 'golden-ratio-scroll-highlight-line-face nil
                     :background 'unspecified :foreground 'unspecified)

Works as well.