2

How do I change the font color of the mode-line to make it more visible?

1
  • 2
    What have you tried so far?
    – Dan
    Oct 31, 2019 at 16:15

1 Answer 1

6

What you call the bottom bar is the "mode line". I recommend reading the first fews sections of the manual, especially this one to know the names of the various screen elements (this is not difficult at all, but not straightforward for newcomers.) The graphical attributes of text in emacs are grouped in "faces". As mentionned in the manual:

By default, the mode line of nonselected windows is displayed in a different face, called mode-line-inactive. Only the selected window is displayed in the mode-line face. This helps show which window is selected.

So the answer is to customize the face mode-line. To do so, you can look at the face definition by typing M-x describe-face RET mode-line RET and from that select the "customize this font" link (or you can directly use M-x customize-face). Customization is rather straightforward, but if you want to know more, see the manual section on customizing faces.

3
  • 1
    If the name of the face is known, a user can type M-x customize-face .... Depending upon how many faces are present at the given location and depending upon the version of Emacs, the desired face may even be the default first choice when typing the aforementioned function ...
    – lawlist
    Nov 1, 2019 at 4:57
  • @lawlist Didn't know about this smart default choice, very nice!
    – JeanPierre
    Nov 1, 2019 at 11:08
  • Heads up, Emacs 29.1 added the face mode-line-active in a way that broke certain customizations of the mode-line face, which is now just for things that are common to both active and inactive mode lines. For example, if you were doing something like (face-remap-add-relative 'mode-line :background ...) to change the mode line color per-buffer, you now have to do (face-remap-add-relative 'mode-line-active :background ...).
    – mtraceur
    Aug 5, 2023 at 0:30

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.