How to Change Colors in XEmacs

(by Justine Ehlers)

About Colors:

The default background that XEmacs comes with "out of the box" is gray. However, a gray background makes it harder to see the lighter colors. That's why I changed the backgrounds to black.

Note: If you choose "Save Options" from the "Options" pulldown, your colors are NOT saved (everything else is). XEmacs 20.3 moved "officially" changing and saving the colors to the "Customize" area. See below, #2 on "How to Change Colors".

How to Change Colors:

1. Quick, No Changes Are Saved
   
   • Go to the "Options" pulldown (top of XEmacs), select "Browse Faces". This gives you a list of what you can change.
   • Click on the foreground color you'd like to change.
   • Type "Shift key"f for F.
   • Notice at the bottom of your XEmacs that it'll prompt you for the new color. Backspace over the color name.
   • You can either type a color name or hit the "tab key". Hitting the "tab key" gives you a five page list of colors you can choose. Choose a color. XEmacs updates the colors.
   • You can change the background color. Click on the background color you'd like to change.
   • Type "Shift key"b for B.
   • Proceed the same as for the foreground color.
2. Slower, Changes Are Saved
   
   • Go to the "Options" pulldown (top of XEmacs), select "Customize" then "Face..."
   • Notice at the bottom of your XEmacs that it'll prompt you to choose what you want to change. "Customize face: (default all)" Hit the "Enter key" to choose all. (If you know the name, you can type the name to just change the one color.)
   • You get a list of what you can change. Middle click on [Show] to see the items to change.
   • Select by clicking on the [ ] at the beginning of the line. Hit "Enter key" to select it. Hit "Enter key" to deselect. (The "Enter key" is a toggle.)
   • Backspace over the color.
   • Choose another one. Notice it'll show you immediately what it looks like.
   • If you like it, you can save one of two ways: (1) Go back to the top and click on the "Save" button. (2) Go to the "Custom" pulldown (top of XEmacs) and choose "Save".