Re: face at point

[Tim Cross <tcross@nospam.une.edu.au>]

John Hunter <jdhunter@nitace.bsd.uchicago.edu> writes:

> [ I recently inadvertently posted this to g.e.gnus, but it really
> belongs here.  Sorry for the crosspost ]
> 
> I don't really understand how to identify what faces are in use in a
> given buffer.
> 

I find the following two functions very useful

,----[ C-h f list-colors-display RET ]
| list-colors-display is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `facemenu'.
| (list-colors-display &optional LIST)
| 
| Display names of defined colors, and show what they look like.
| If the optional argument LIST is non-nil, it should be a list of
| colors to display.  Otherwise, this command computes a list
| of colors that the current display can handle.
`----

and

,----[ C-h f list-text-properties-at RET ]
| list-text-properties-at is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `facemenu'.
| (list-text-properties-at P)
| 
| Pop up a buffer listing text-properties at LOCATION.
`----

As I also find many of the "default colours don't work well with a
dark background, I usually start my customization of emacs colours by
setting the default foreground/background and then using
list-colors-display to see the values for all loaded faces and setting
those which are difficult to read. If I find there is still a face in
some mode which is difficult to read I put the cursor on a bit of the
text and use list-text-properties-at-point to identify which face i
need to set.

Tim