Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> Sharon Kimble <boudiccas@skimble.plus.com> writes:
>
>> I'm hoping that someone can advise me, I'm looking
>> for a theme to use with emacs and gnus which has a
>> dark background, but also allows me to read all the
>> text in a gmail which currently appears as
>> nearly-white on a slightly-grey background.
>
> "All the text in a gmail"?
>
> To get a default bright-on-dark "theme" (which I highly
> recommend to reduce eye strain) simply evaluate this:
>
> (set-face-attribute 'default nil
>                     :foreground "cyan"
>                     :background "black"
>                     :bold nil)
>
> Change "cyan" to whatever fits you the best. I use a
> Linux VT/tty/"the console" and you probably use X. That
> means I can't help you with the colors, but try
> "green", "blue", etc. See if you can find something you
> like; if not, dig deeper. Probably you don't won't bold
> for ordinary text, save that option for faces that
> highlight stuff (headers, keywords, and so on).
>
> If you run into some text that you don't like the color
> of, use this defun to identify the face:
>
> (defun what-face (pos)
>   (interactive "d")
>   (let ((face (or (get-char-property (point) 'read-face-name)
>                   (get-char-property (point) 'face))))
>     (if face (message " Face: %s" face)
>       (message " No face at %d." pos) )))

Thanks for this Emanuel, I've doctored my init.el and put the above in
it, at the end, which is where I always put temporary/testing code,
unless it goes into my setup-testing.el. I then ran it when my mouse was
on the problem text in a gmail, and this is what it found -
╭────
│Face: ((:foreground #5e5e5e) (:foreground #5e5e5e) (:background #727272))
╰────

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but how can I customise that? Its got
no name or handle that I can hook on to!

Sharon.
>
> Put it in an init file, for example ~/.emacs. Then
> invoke it with `M-x what-face' with point at the face
> you don't like the color of. This will show you what
> face it is. Then do as above again, only substitute
> 'default for the face you found. Note that several
> modes/modules of Emacs uses the same faces. So if it
> looks great with brown somewhere, it might not look as
> great somewhere else, and of course, if you change it
> again, the first place may look less good! In practice,
> this is seldom or never a problem. If it is, it is
> solvable but I never got to that. Just go for what
> sticks out in a pleasant way, it should work
> everywhere. Where applicable, put some thought into it:
> with programming, the `font-lock-comment-face'
> shouldn't be as bright and emphasized as
> `font-lock-function-name-face' (because people
> comment-out stuff, and read comments only as a
> secondary measure, when they don't immediately
> understand the code), what's more, perhaps red is a
> natural color for `font-lock-warning-face', and so
> on. But don't overthink it. Most important thing is it
> should look clear, relaxed, and fun. Check out this
> screenshot of a modest major-mode a once did. That's
> how I like it. Obviously I didn't intellectualize every
> singly color I put to use. It is still very pleasant to
> work in such a mode - like a night club :) [1]
>
>> I've recently been using aalto-dark, aalto-light,
>> adwaita, alect-black-alt, tsdh-dark and all have
>> failed the gmail test. I'm currently using tango,
>> which is the complete reverse of what I'm looking
>> for.
>
> The problem with themes, which I didn't know existed
> until this discussion by the way, is that you find one
> mode, you like it to 80%, but not quite, so you look
> for another, maybe you like that to 90%, and so
> on. Instead of jumping between Emacs themes, Linux
> distros, and so on, just put that time setting it up
> the way you want it. Plain and simple. Time-consuming,
> yes, but educational. Fun. And ultimately, much more
> capable of getting not to 90% but (almost) all the way
> (and those last percent missing not because some
> perfect theme is eluding you, but because of your
> current understanding and skills. Remember,
> "Don't chase the dragon - become the dragon!"
>
> [1] http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/fps/fpscalc.png

-- 
A taste of linux = http://www.sharons.org.uk
my git repo = https://bitbucket.org/boudiccas/dots
TGmeds = http://www.tgmeds.org.uk
Debian testing, fluxbox 1.3.5, emacs 24.3.92.1