Protesilaos Stavrou

Emacs: ef-themes version 0.10.0

The ef-themes is a collection of light and dark themes for GNU Emacs whose goal is to provide colourful (“pretty”) yet legible options for users who want something with a bit more flair than the modus-themes (also designed by me).

Below are the release notes.

New user option for highlighted region

The ef-themes-region accepts a list of symbols that affect how the region looks. The manual or the variable’s doc string describe the technicalities. Here is a sample:

(setq ef-themes-region '(intense no-extend))

Remember that changes to theme user options must be done before loading a theme. For any subsequent customisation, a theme re-load is required.

The ef-themes-headings now affects the Org agenda

Before, the Org agenda headings would inherit from the generic heading levels 0 and 1. This had undesired effects, as users often need a taller typeface for prose (e.g. regular Org files), though not necessarily for viewing their already well-structured Org agenda.

The ef-themes-headings can now control the Org agenda date and structure headings directly. A complete example:

(setq ef-themes-headings ; read the manual's entry or the doc string
      '((0 . (variable-pitch light 1.9))
        (1 . (variable-pitch light 1.8))
        (2 . (variable-pitch light 1.7))
        (3 . (variable-pitch semilight 1.6))
        (4 . (variable-pitch semilight 1.5))
        (5 . (variable-pitch regular 1.4))
        (6 . (variable-pitch regular 1.3))
        (7 . (variable-pitch 1.2))    ; absence of weight means `bold'
        (agenda-date . (semilight 1.5))
        (agenda-structure . (variable-pitch light 1.9))
        (t . (variable-pitch 1.1))))

In Org agenda buffers, the “structure” is the type of heading that describes the current block of content. In the generic agenda, it is the first line, which reads something like Week-agenda (W48):.

Note that Org re-uses heading levels past 8. This is not the theme’s work, so heading 9 looks the same as 1. Check the user options org-level-faces, org-n-level-faces for ways to change this.

Support for more packages

  • cider
  • clojure-mode
  • eglot
  • perspective. Thanks to Walheimat for the contribution. This was done in pull request 18 on the GitHub mirror: https://github.com/protesilaos/ef-themes/pull/18. The change is below the ~15 line limit. It does not require copyright assignment to the Free Software Foundation.
  • tree-sitter

Lots of small tweaks to colour values

All themes have enjoyed attention to their details. The general idea is that some colours are fine-tuned to look better in their context. In most cases, the change is subtle and can only be noticed when comparing samples side-by-side. Some more noticeable effects:

  • All neutral backgrounds that are used for elements such as the tab-bar-mode, the header-line, the mode lines, and the like, are all amplified. They should now be easier to discern, especially on monitors with inaccurate reproduction of grey values.

  • The match face, which is used by Grep, Occur, and related, now uses a coloured background instead of a neutral grey. This makes it easier to stand out. The choice of colour is consistent with the backgrounds used by Isearch for the current and other matches: they do not clash (e.g. a user may perform a search inside an Occur buffer).

  • The M-x calendar weekdays and weekends are rendered in distinct colours. Weekends stand out the same way they do in physical calendars and common apps.

  • The Org agenda date headings follow the same style as those of the M-x calendar. THIS IS EXPERIMENTAL in the hope of receiving feedback about weekends standing out. If the community thinks the effect is inappropriate, I will revert this change or, anyhow, adapt accordingly. Though please give it a fair chance.

  • Magit diff hunk headings now use more appropriate shades of grey. The active/current diff hunk heading stands out better, while inactive hunk headings are distinguishable from the diff’s context.

  • Git/VC commit hashes have a tinted foreground instead of a dim grey. They are thus easier to spot in various contexts, such as Magit rebase operations and M-x vc-print-root-log.

  • The yellow used for strings in the ef-cherie theme is now a bit more gold. This helps strings stand out when placed beside functions.

  • The ef-night heading 4 no longer uses the same red as that of the TODO Org keyword. The previous design was a mistake on my part. Heading levels 6 and 8 are tweaked accordingly.

  • The heading level 6 of ef-summer and ef-spring are also disambiguated from Org’s TODO, while retaining their character.

Miscellaneous

  • Refined various faces in the interest of consistency and usability.
  • Applied the new theme properties that Emacs 29 can read. These tell Emacs whether the theme is light or dark and the family it belongs to.
  • Clarified some statements in the manual and/or the various doc strings in the source code.
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