The defcustom :type code for the variable font-lock-maximum-decoration includes the expression (const :tag "default" nil) twice. I think that in both cases this should be (const :tag "minimum" nil) because the default value of font-lock-maximum-decoration is t, not nil. In GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32) of 2019-08-29 built on CIRROCUMULUS Repository revision: 96dd0196c28bc36779584e47fffcca433c9309cd Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.17763 Recent messages: Creating customization items... Creating customization items ...done Resetting customization items...done Creating customization setup...done To install your edits, invoke [State] and choose the Set operation Font-Lock mode disabled in current buffer Font-Lock mode enabled in current buffer To install your edits, invoke [State] and choose the Set operation Font-Lock mode disabled in current buffer Font-Lock mode enabled in current buffer Configured using: 'configure --without-dbus --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --without-compress-install 'CFLAGS=-O2 -static -g3'' Configured features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND NOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS THREADS LCMS2 Important settings: value of $LANG: ENG locale-coding-system: cp1252 Major mode: Emacs-Lisp Minor modes in effect: flyspell-mode: t show-paren-mode: t electric-pair-mode: t delete-selection-mode: t tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t 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 buffer-read-only: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t view-mode: t Load-path shadows: c:/Users/franc/AppData/Roaming/.emacs.d/elpa/python-0.26.1/python hides d:/emacs/emacs/share/emacs/26.3/lisp/progmodes/python Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message rmc puny format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec epa derived epg gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils cus-edit wid-edit pp cl-print view misearch multi-isearch dired-aux dired dired-loaddefs cl-extra eieio-opt speedbar sb-image ezimage dframe find-func help-fns radix-tree help-mode apropos flyspell ispell paren elec-pair delsel cus-start cus-load finder-inf info package easymenu epg-config url-handlers url-parse auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs eieio-loaddefs password-cache url-vars seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile cconv cl-loaddefs cl-lib time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel dos-w32 ls-lisp disp-table term/w32-win w32-win w32-vars term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors 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 composite charscript charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray 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 threads w32notify w32 lcms2 multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 176735 11803) (symbols 48 24680 4) (miscs 40 197 307) (strings 32 44783 1934) (string-bytes 1 1174024) (vectors 16 19463) (vector-slots 8 554657 13046) (floats 8 75 507) (intervals 56 8213 1696) (buffers 992 19))