Screen shots of the Standard themes for GNU Emacs

Refer to the official manual for the specifics of the Standard themes. The following screen shots show only the default styles, but note that the themes are highly customisable: we simply cannot produce screenshots for the numerous of stylistic variations.

NOTE: The standard-themes are designed to be like the out-of-the-box looks of Emacs. They tweak details, improve upon certain inconsistencies, cover lots of packages, and provide customisation options. If you want to see themes that are aligned with my preferences, check the modus-themes (built into Emacs) and ef-themes.

Default dark style compared to standard-dark

Remember that the standard-themes are all about details. We do not deviate from the default aesthetic. This necessarily makes it hard to demonstrate, although the user will still notice the sum of all those little refinements once exposed to them.

Dark default VS standard-dark Org timestamps, TODO, table

The default dark style has too intense timestamps and too subtle TODO and DONE keywords. This is not consistent with its light counterpart. Furthermore, the default styles add a distinct colour to timestamps which makes them stand out much more than they need to.

Light default VS standard-light Org timestamps, TODO, table

Tables in the default light theme are too intense. For long/detailed entries, this is too burdensome for the eye. standard-light tones down this exaggeration in the interest of usability. Timestamps have a different accent than their default counterparts because they do not need to stand out as much—they still are easy to spot, but not over-the-top.

Since we had not showcased the standard-light theme before, also notice that the window divider is less intense. This helps the theme be less distracting. There are many details like that one.