Hi all, This is a cute bug. Run the following two commands (in bash): # Set Emacs.background in Xresources $ xrdb <(echo "Emacs.background: #2e3436") # Run Emacs with same background on default face $ emacs -q --eval "(set-face-attribute 'default nil :background \"#2e3436\")" On my machine, the two colors are not rendered the same. I've attached a screenshot. What essentially happens is that anywhere where text is drawn the background is indeed #2e3436, but on the rest of the frame it's #2d3335. Amusingly, these two colors have distinct RGB and HSL values, but their CMYK and HSB values are the same (or so says http://rgb.to/hex/2d3335 and http://rgb.to/hex/2e3436, at least). The reason I came across this is that I use Emacs' tango-dark theme, which uses that background color. Since I didn't like Emacs popping up with a white background and immediately switching, I set the same background in my .Xresources. To observe the bug more clearly, just take a screenshot and open it in your favourite image editor, then use the magic wand with a tolerance of 0 (see other screenshot). Or use the color picker. What could cause this problem? A roundtripping issue with color conversions? Clément. In GNU Emacs 25.0.50.3 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.10.8) of 2016-01-08 built on clem-w50-mint Repository revision: fb97523fa14e0fb7f0cebe92c749629ad0ab475e Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11501000 System Description: Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela Configured features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG IMAGEMAGICK SOUND GPM DBUS GCONF GSETTINGS NOTIFY ACL LIBSELINUX GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11 Important settings: value of $LC_TIME: en_DK.UTF-8 value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Lisp Interaction Minor modes in effect: tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent messages: For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message dired format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec epg epg-config gnus-util mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util help-fns help-mode easymenu cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib mail-prsvr mail-utils time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese charscript case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote dbusbind inotify dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 86528 3773) (symbols 48 19882 0) (miscs 40 42 85) (strings 32 14576 5171) (string-bytes 1 417874) (vectors 16 11726) (vector-slots 8 426886 4799) (floats 8 164 77) (intervals 56 191 0) (buffers 976 11) (heap 1024 39449 1144))