Protesilaos Stavrou

Emacs: ef-themes version 2.0.0

The ef-themes are a collection of light and dark themes for GNU Emacs that 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.

Version 2.0.0 on 2025-11-09

The Ef themes are now derived from my Modus themes. This means that they inherit the wide face coverage and extensive customisability of Modus, while retaining their stylistic flair.

The Ef themes no longer provide any user options of their own. Each of the options we had before is now an alias for the Modus equivalent. As part of this transition, the Ef themes actually gain new customisation options, which are documented herein.

Furthermore, the Ef themes do not define any commands to load a theme. What we had before is once again an alias for the equivalent Modus command.

The manual of the Ef themes describes these compatibility arrangements. Further documentation and code samples are available in the manual of the Modus themes:

Old user options and hooks are mere aliases for Modus options

Old name Is alias for CURRENT NAME
ef-themes-disable-other-themes modus-themes-disable-other-themes
ef-themes-to-toggle modus-themes-to-toggle
ef-themes-to-rotate modus-themes-to-rotate
ef-themes-italic-constructs modus-themes-italic-constructs
ef-themes-bold-constructs modus-themes-bold-constructs
ef-themes-variable-pitch-ui modus-themes-variable-pitch-ui
ef-themes-mixed-fonts modus-themes-mixed-fonts
ef-themes-headings modus-themes-headings
ef-themes-completions modus-themes-completions
ef-themes-prompts modus-themes-prompts
ef-themes-common-palette-overrides modus-themes-common-palette-overrides
ef-themes-post-load-hook modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook
ef-themes-after-load-theme-hook modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook

Please read their respective documentation strings.

If you use Ef and possibly other Modus derivatives, you may prefer to switch all your user options to the Modus ones. This way you can keep a unified configuration for all your themes.

Fewer bold and italic faces by default, more as an opt-in clause

In the past, the Ef themes did not provide an option to disable the extensive use of a bold font weight and italic font slant. Whereas now those are controlled by the user options modus-themes-bold-constructs and modus-themes-italic-constructs. By default, when they are nil, bold and italics are used only when necessary. Set these user options to t to have bold and italics in more places.

Loading only Ef themes with the convenience wrappers we provide

All the old commands Ef provided for loading one of its themes will still work as before, meaning that they will only ever show and load a theme that belongs to the Ef collection.

Internally, these commands are now using the Modus infrastructure and are then limiting the set of themes to the Ef collection. They are thus convenience wrappers around the equivalent Modus commands.

  • ef-themes-toggle
  • ef-themes-rotate
  • ef-themes-select
  • ef-themes-load-random
  • ef-themes-load-random-dark
  • ef-themes-load-random-light

Additionally, the commands ef-themes-list-colors and ef-themes-list-colors-current use the relevant Modus functionality under the hood while working only with the Ef themes.

Combining core Modus themes with all their derivatives

The minor mode modus-themes-include-derivatives-mode makes all the theme-loading commands that Modus defines consider all core and derivative themes. This means that something like modus-themes-select will offer modus-operandi and ef-summer as two of the many possible candidates.

In this scenario, the Modus and Ef collections become part of a larger family of themes as opposed to only considering one or the other (Loading only Ef themes with the convenience wrappers we provide). Enable modus-themes-include-derivatives-mode and then access them all with the following commands:

  • modus-themes-toggle
  • modus-themes-rotate
  • modus-themes-select
  • modus-themes-load-random
  • modus-themes-load-random-dark
  • modus-themes-load-random-light
  • modus-themes-list-colors
  • modus-themes-list-colors-current

Consult the manual of the Modus themes for further details and/or read the documentation string of each command.

Taking over the Modus commands altogether

The minor mode ef-themes-take-over-modus-themes-mode makes all Modus commands that load a theme consider only Ef themes. This is the opposite of allowing different theme collections to be blended together (Combining core Modus themes with all their derivatives). It effectively is the same as using one of the convenience wrapper commands we already provide (Loading only Ef themes with the convenience wrappers we provide).

This minor mode exists to accommodate the needs of users who install both the Modus and Ef theme packages (and possibly other Modus derivatives). They can maintain a single/shared configuration and then decide when to enable ef-themes-take-over-modus-themes-mode to switch to using just the Ef themes.

For example, in the morning the user only wants to consider the Modus themes, but during the evening they only likee the Ef themes. In this scenario, a key binding to, say, modus-themes-rotate does not need to be updated: it internally reads only Ef themes when ef-themes-take-over-modus-themes-mode is enable. When this minor mode is disabled, that same key binding will revert to doing what it did before (load only a core Modus theme or Modus plus derivatives if modus-themes-include-derivatives-mode is enabled).

More semantic palette mappings

Modus has always had a more comprehensive palette than Ef. Now they are on par. Concretely, this means that users can customise more of the theme’s style to their liking. Use the commands that list/preview a palette to learn about all the available options.

The manual of the Modus themes covers the palette and user-defined overrides at great length. It also includes code samples that you can use as a starting point. And if something is unclear, you are welcome to contact me.

Many more faces are covered

The wide face/package coverage of Modus is now inherited by the Ef themes. If some interface you are using does not look right, then the underlying faces are probably not supported yet. Contact me and I will take care of it right away.

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