While the Modus themes do provide a user option to control the overall style of syntax highlighting in programming major modes, they do not cover the possibility of a monochromatic or near-monochromatic design (Option for syntax highlighting). This is due to the multitude of preferences involved: one may like comments to be styled with an accent value, another may want certain constructs to be bold, a third may apply italics to doc strings but not comments… The possibilities are virtually endless. As such, this sort of design is best handled at the user level in accordance with the information furnished elsewhere in this manual.
Case-by-case face specs using the themes’ palette.
Face specs at scale using the themes’ palette.
The gist is that we want to override the font-lock faces. For our
changes to persist while switching between modus-operandi and
modus-vivendi we wrap our face overrides in a function that we hook to
modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook.
Users who want to replicate the structure of the themes’ source code are
advised to use the examples with custom-set-faces. Those who prefer a
different approach can use the snippets which call set-face-attribute.
Below are the code blocks.
The following uses a yellow accent value for comments and green hues for
strings. Regexp grouping constructs have color values that work in the
context of a green string. All other elements use the main foreground
color, except warnings such as the user-error function in Elisp
buffers which gets a subtle red tint (not to be confused with the
warning face which is used for genuine warnings). Furthermore, notice
the modus-themes-bold and modus-themes-slant which apply the
preference set in the user options modus-themes-bold-constructs and
modus-themes-italic-constructs, respectively. Users who do not want
this conditionally must replace these faces with bold and italic
respectively (or unspecified to disable the effect altogether).
;; This is the hook. It will not be replicated across all code samples.
(add-hook 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook #'my-modus-themes-subtle-syntax)
(defun my-modus-themes-subtle-syntax ()
(modus-themes-with-colors
(custom-set-faces
`(font-lock-builtin-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-comment-delimiter-face ((,class :inherit font-lock-comment-face)))
`(font-lock-comment-face ((,class :inherit unspecified :foreground ,fg-comment-yellow)))
`(font-lock-constant-face ((,class :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-doc-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-slant :foreground ,fg-special-mild)))
`(font-lock-function-name-face ((,class :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-keyword-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-negation-char-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-preprocessor-face ((,class :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-regexp-grouping-backslash ((,class :inherit bold :foreground ,yellow)))
`(font-lock-regexp-grouping-construct ((,class :inherit bold :foreground ,blue-alt-other)))
`(font-lock-string-face ((,class :foreground ,green-alt-other)))
`(font-lock-type-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-variable-name-face ((,class :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-warning-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground ,red-nuanced-fg))))))
;; Same as above with `set-face-attribute' instead of `custom-set-faces'
(defun my-modus-themes-subtle-syntax ()
(modus-themes-with-colors
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-builtin-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-comment-delimiter-face nil :inherit 'font-lock-comment-face)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-comment-face nil :inherit 'unspecified :foreground fg-comment-yellow)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-constant-face nil :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-doc-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-slant :foreground fg-special-mild)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-function-name-face nil :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-keyword-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-negation-char-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-preprocessor-face nil :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-regexp-grouping-backslash nil :inherit 'bold :foreground yellow)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-regexp-grouping-construct nil :inherit 'bold :foreground blue-alt-other)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-string-face nil :foreground green-alt-other)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-type-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-variable-name-face nil :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-warning-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground red-nuanced-fg)))
The following sample is the same as above, except strings are blue and comments are gray. Regexp constructs are adapted accordingly.
(defun my-modus-themes-subtle-syntax ()
(modus-themes-with-colors
(custom-set-faces
`(font-lock-builtin-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-comment-delimiter-face ((,class :inherit font-lock-comment-face)))
`(font-lock-comment-face ((,class :inherit unspecified :foreground ,fg-alt)))
`(font-lock-constant-face ((,class :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-doc-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-slant :foreground ,fg-docstring)))
`(font-lock-function-name-face ((,class :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-keyword-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-negation-char-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-preprocessor-face ((,class :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-regexp-grouping-backslash ((,class :inherit bold :foreground ,fg-escape-char-backslash)))
`(font-lock-regexp-grouping-construct ((,class :inherit bold :foreground ,fg-escape-char-construct)))
`(font-lock-string-face ((,class :foreground ,blue-alt)))
`(font-lock-type-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-variable-name-face ((,class :foreground unspecified)))
`(font-lock-warning-face ((,class :inherit modus-themes-bold :foreground ,red-nuanced-fg))))))
;; Same as above with `set-face-attribute' instead of `custom-set-faces'
(defun my-modus-themes-subtle-syntax ()
(modus-themes-with-colors
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-builtin-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-comment-delimiter-face nil :inherit 'font-lock-comment-face)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-comment-face nil :inherit 'unspecified :foreground fg-alt)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-constant-face nil :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-doc-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-slant :foreground fg-docstring)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-function-name-face nil :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-keyword-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-negation-char-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-preprocessor-face nil :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-regexp-grouping-backslash nil :inherit 'bold :foreground fg-escape-char-backslash)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-regexp-grouping-construct nil :inherit 'bold :foreground fg-escape-char-construct)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-string-face nil :foreground blue-alt)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-type-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-variable-name-face nil :foreground 'unspecified)
(set-face-attribute 'font-lock-warning-face nil :inherit 'modus-themes-bold :foreground red-nuanced-fg)))