This page is for questions and answers about the color-theme package. For info on the package, see '''ColorTheme'''. [new:XavierMaillard:2009-05-16 06:16 UTC] You can ask your question on the newly dedicated section at https://answers.launchpad.net/color-theme-el This tool will be used to build a clean FAQ for color-theme-el. I will try to compile a selection of the best questions/answers to be published here. -- XavierMaillard == Problems with toggling themes == I have a function that toggles between two themes, taken from the EmacsWiki's color-theme page: 
(defun toggle-themes ()
      "Switch to/from night color scheme."
      (interactive)
      (if (eq (frame-parameter (next-frame) 'background-mode) 'light)
          (color-theme-gnome2)
        (color-theme-snapshot)))
(I set the color-theme-snapshot just after initializing `color-theme', and load gnome2 after that) Now, when Emacs loads, it displays the gnome2 theme properly. Then, when I change to snapshot, everything's fine. The problem is when I change it once again: the comments are blue, but the comment starting tags (// in C++, ;; in Lisp, whatever) are red (as in the snapshot theme). I've tried re-declaring `font-lock-comment-face', but it's not working. Any thoughts? == How To Undo? == After applying a color theme, is there a way to undo that change -- to get back all of the [[Frame]], [[Face]], etc. settings that were in effect before the change? I'm looking for a function that will do this (not "restart Emacs"). -- DrewAdams [new] 
(require 'color-theme)

(defun color-theme-undo ()
  (interactive)
  (color-theme-reset-faces)
  (color-theme-snapshot))

;; backup current color theme
(fset 'color-theme-snapshot (color-theme-make-snapshot))


;;change color theme


;;M-x color-theme-undo
[new] maybe you need to modify faces.el file [new] 
738c738
<       (when (stringp family)
---
>       (when (or (stringp family)(eq family 'unspecified))
741c741
<       (when (stringp foundry)
---
>       (when (or (stringp foundry)(eq foundry 'unspecified))
== How To Find Out a Theme's Name? == Once that random color theme function brings up a theme that I really like, how do I find out that theme's name? -- BryanMurdock :: Look at `color-theme-history'. It is not maintained automatically. Set `color-theme-history-max-length' first. -- AlexSchroeder == How To Make a Theme Dynamic? == Is there a way to make a theme "dynamic"? Specifically, I want to have the font size scale up or down based on the screen resolution of the display (e.g. based on (cond ((= (x-display-pixel-width) 1280) ... ). -- GregFenton : No. Color themes are not supposed to change font sizes, though, so it should "just work" if you set the font-size of the default font. == How To Override Pointer Colors? == Is there a way of overriding the MousePointer colors that seem to be set by the color theme? : Nevermind, got this myself. (set-mouse-color "white") or similar, using a colored pointer makes running the emacs remotely slower. This helps. == Problems in NTEmacs? == [new] I've seen this question posted elsewhere but could find no solutions. When I use color-theme with NTEmacs. Under certain themes, the cursor turns black. I tried using (set-cursor-color "red") which works for like 1/2 seconds. The cursor promptly returns to black which his annoying because you can't see the character under the cursor. Anyone figured out that problem? -- FrancoisDenisGonthier [new:DrewAdams:2007-01-14 00:36 UTC] Yes. I reported that bug in May 2006. It has been fixed recently in Emacs 22. See the thread "cursor-color frame parameter cannot equal background-color" in ##emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org##. This has nothing to do, per se, with color themes, BTW. -- DrewAdams [new:PeterTury:2007-06-22] Recently I faced a quite similar problem with official v22.1 GNU Emacs. Finally I found that modifying cua-enable-cursor-indications to nil (in custom-set-variables in .emacs) solved the problem. I think this could be a bug in color-theme: probably it (=the color themes I tried) doesn't (re)set faces used in cua-mode (assuming cua-mode has its own faces). If this is the case, then I would think it is color-theme's fault. Another similar problem: using Gnus with `color-theme-subtle-hacker' the Newsgroups, Subject, X-Draft-From, From, etc. texts are unreadable: according to `describe-text-properties' they are fontified with face `message-header-name' whose Foreground should be !DodgerBlue1 what is nicely readable, but I see them in dark green what is unreadable. If I `facemenu-remove-face-props' them, then they become readable... What could cause this gnus problem? -- Peter Tury == Problems with GnuEmacs 21.4.1 == Everything works fine, if I start with load-library color-theme in the input line. If I try to load from .emacs file I get an error: Wrong type argument: keymapp, nil [...] setq: Symbol's function definition is void: color-theme-filter [new] Same for me!!! Sob... Emilio Luque [new] The answer is simple, I made a change in the code (pretty small change btw) to make color-theme working with emacs-devel. To switch back this change, just change all occurences of easy-add-menu to have "tools" instead of "Tools". That should do the trick. I have opened a bug report on Gna! (https://gna.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=5059). Correction: This should be easy-menu-add, not easy-add-menu. There are two instances in 6.5.5 and changing "Tools" to "tools" makes color-theme work again. (Joachim.) == XEmacs 21.4.15 and color-themes 6.6.0 == 6.5.5 is Ok with xemacs 21.4.15, but 6.6.0 has two problems: # If you request a colour theme in your init.el (for example, '(color-theme-xemacs)') then xemacs returns a "Symbol's function definition is void: color-theme-xemacs" error message when starting up # When you try to select a theme using the 'tools -> color themes' menu item xemacs returns a "cannot open load file: /themes/color-theme-example.el" error message. For (1), if your init.el looks like this: (require 'color-theme) (color-theme-xemacs) Then you need to change it to: (require 'color-theme) (color-theme-initialize) (color-theme-xemacs) For (2), you need to edit color-theme.el. Line 223 is: "/themes") t "^color-theme") Change this to: "themes") t "^color-theme") == questionable Color Theme Is Cumulative doc string == Maybe my logic unit is not up yet but this customization entry confuses me: Color Theme Is Cumulative: Hide Value Toggle on (non-nil) State: STANDARD. Determines wether new color themes are installed on top of each other. Hide Rest If non-nil, installing a color theme will undo all settings made by previous color themes. The other way arround would make more sense to me. -- Andre Kuehne == How to turn off color-theme on terminal frame? == I use emacs on both X and terminal, color-theme is great on X, but on terminal when there are only 8 colors, some theme makes emacs looks ugly and text becomes unreadable. I'm using emacsclient. How can I disable color-theme on a terminal frame? Any hooks I can use? -- [[sylecn]] Well, you could put something in your [[init file]] like this: 
(when (display-graphic-p) (color-theme-whatever))
(Use [[variable]] `window-system' if your Emacs version does not have function `display-graphic-p'.) You could use `if' and use an alternative color scheme on console; some work pretty well. The above solution optionally loads the theme system wide depending on the type of the /first/ frame opened. When using emacsclient it is often the case that a user will have both tty and x frames open. Is there any way to optoinally "turn on" the current theme in /only/ x frames? Using the old Color Themes package this was possible with code like the following. It does not appear to be possible using the new built in theme support in custom.el. 
;; test for each frame or console
(defun color-theme-for-win-sys (frame)
  (let ((color-theme-is-global nil))
    (select-frame frame)
    (when (window-system frame)
      (color-theme-railscasts))))

;; hook on after-make-frame-functions
(add-hook 'after-make-frame-functions 'color-theme-for-win-sys)

;; Start up the color theme in this initial frame.
(let ((color-theme-is-global nil))
  (when (window-system)
    (color-theme-railscasts)))
[new:PauloMatos:2010-01-28] It would be nice to have a list of color-themes that work well on a terminal. [new:BrianOney:2013-08-10] Themes on a terminal instance of emacs that I like: Well one first has to enable colors. Put: 
# colors! works in gnome-terminal  and hopefully others as well
# put this in your .bashrc file
export TERM=xterm-256color

;; fav theme e.g.
;; (load-theme 'manoj-dark) ; nice
;; (load-theme 'grandshell t) ; recently broke for terminal
(load-theme 'zenburn t) ; new fav
---- CategoryFaces