Emacs: the 'standard-themes' are also built on top of the 'modus-themes'

2025-10-03

In previous entries I explained how I have reworked the modus-themes to optionally work as the basis for other theme packages. The official documentation is in the manual of the Modus themes (my manuals are the only source of truth; blog posts—including this one—become outdated): https://protesilaos.com/emacs/modus-themes#h:86eb375b-9be4-43ce-879a-0686a524a63b.

I already mentioned how version 2.0.0 of the ef-themes will be done this way. I am happy to announce that as of this morning the same is true for my standard-themes. Specifically, version 3.0.0 of the Standard themes will be built on top of the modus-themes.

Users are now expected to customise the themes via the user options provided by Modus and to load the themes with the relevant Modus commands. Here is a sample configuration:

(use-package standard-themes
  :ensure t
  :init
  ;; This makes the Modus commands listed below consider only the
  ;; Standard themes.  For an alternative that includes Modus and all
  ;; derivative themes (like Standard), enable the
  ;; `modus-themes-include-derivatives-mode' instead.
  (standard-themes-take-over-modus-themes-mode 1)
  :bind
  (("<f5>" . modus-themes-rotate)
   ("C-<f5>" . modus-themes-select)
   ("M-<f5>" . modus-themes-load-random))
  :config
  ;; All customisations here.
  (setq modus-themes-mixed-fonts t)
  (setq modus-themes-italic-constructs t)

  ;; Finally, load your theme of choice (or a random one with
  ;; `modus-themes-load-random', `modus-themes-load-random-dark',
  ;; `modus-themes-load-random-light').
  (modus-themes-load-theme 'standard-light-tinted))

The modus-themes-theme macro is flexible

This morning, I extended the modus-themes-theme macro to optionally accept custom faces and user options that complement or override those provided by core Modus (the modus-themes-theme macro is documented at length with concrete examples in the aforementioned link to the manual). For the standard-themes, this means that we can inherit all the goodies from Modus but still deviate stylistically in important ways wherever necessary. One case where this is evident is the design of the active mode line: Modus has a flat appearance, while Standard uses a 3D effect.

Standard does not need to deviate substantively from Modus, though there is no technical constraint in this regard. A derivative theme can implement all the requisite deviations to achieve the exact design it aims for, all while reusing Modus.

My plan is to release all new theme versions in the coming days, depending on my availability. Please let me know if you have any questions or want some things to change.