Modus themes for GNU Emacs (Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi)

A pair of highly accessible themes that conform with the WCAG AAA standard for colour contrast between background and foreground combinations (a minimum contrast of 7:1---the highest standard of its kind). The Modus themes also strive to empower users with red-green color deficiency: this is achieved through customisation options that replace all relevant instances of green with blue, as well as the overall design of the themes which relies mostly on colours that cover the blue-cyan-magenta side of the spectrum.

The themes are built into GNU Emacs 28 (development target). They are also distributed in several packages formats.

• modus-operandi is light.
• modus-vivendi is dark.

For some demo content, check:

• The screenshots of the themes https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes-pictures/.
• My videos on Emacs https://protesilaos.com/code-casts/.

Quick setup for the latest version

(use-package modus-themes
  :ensure
  :init
  ;; Add all your customizations prior to loading the themes
  (setq modus-themes-slanted-constructs t
        modus-themes-bold-constructs nil
        modus-themes-region 'no-extend)

  ;; Load the theme files before enabling a theme
  (modus-themes-load-themes)
  :config
  ;; Load the theme of your choice:
  (modus-themes-load-operandi) ;; OR (modus-themes-load-vivendi)
  :bind ("<f5>" . modus-themes-toggle))

Note: make sure that you do not customise custom-theme-load-path or custom-theme-directory after the themes' package declaration. That will lead to failures in loading the files. If you must change those variables, do it before the package declaration.

All customisations in short

While you should read the manual for all the details (see next section), here is a snippet with all current customisation options and their possible values. Note that those settings are only for purposes of demonstration:

(setq modus-themes-slanted-constructs t
      modus-themes-bold-constructs nil
      modus-themes-no-mixed-fonts nil
      modus-themes-subtle-line-numbers nil
      modus-themes-success-deuteranopia t
      modus-themes-inhibit-reload nil ; only applies to `customize-set-variable' and related

      modus-themes-fringes nil ; {nil,'subtle,'intense}

      ;; Options for `modus-themes-lang-checkers': nil,
      ;; 'straight-underline, 'subtle-foreground,
      ;; 'subtle-foreground-straight-underline, 'intense-foreground,
      ;; 'intense-foreground-straight-underline, 'colored-background
      modus-themes-lang-checkers nil

      ;; Options for `modus-themes-mode-line': nil, '3d, 'moody,
      ;; 'borderless, 'borderless-3d, 'borderless-moody, 'accented,
      ;; 'accented-3d, 'accented-moody, 'borderless-accented,
      ;; 'borderless-accented-3d, 'borderless-accented-moody
      modus-themes-mode-line '3d

      ;; Options for `modus-themes-syntax': nil, 'faint,
      ;; 'yellow-comments, 'green-strings,
      ;; 'yellow-comments-green-strings, 'alt-syntax,
      ;; 'alt-syntax-yellow-comments, 'faint-yellow-comments
      modus-themes-syntax nil

      ;; Options for `modus-themes-hl-line': nil, 'intense-background,
      ;; 'accented-background, 'underline-neutral,
      ;; 'underline-accented, 'underline-only-neutral,
      ;; 'underline-only-accented
      modus-themes-hl-line 'underline-neutral

      modus-themes-paren-match 'subtle-bold ; {nil,'subtle-bold,'intense,'intense-bold}

      ;; Options for `modus-themes-links': nil, 'faint,
      ;; 'neutral-underline, 'faint-neutral-underline, 'no-underline,
      ;; 'underline-only, 'neutral-underline-only
      modus-themes-links 'neutral-underline

      ;; Options for `modus-themes-prompts': nil, 'subtle-accented,
      ;; 'intense-accented, 'subtle-gray, 'intense-gray
      modus-themes-prompts 'subtle-gray

      modus-themes-completions 'moderate ; {nil,'moderate,'opinionated}

      modus-themes-mail-citations nil ; {nil,'faint,'monochrome}

      ;; Options for `modus-themes-region': nil, 'no-extend, 'bg-only,
      ;; 'bg-only-no-extend, 'accent, 'accent-no-extend
      modus-themes-region 'bg-only-no-extend

      ;; Options for `modus-themes-diffs': nil, 'desaturated,
      ;; 'bg-only, 'deuteranopia, 'fg-only-deuteranopia
      modus-themes-diffs 'fg-only-deuteranopia

      modus-themes-org-blocks 'gray-background ; {nil,'gray-background,'tinted-background}
      modus-themes-org-habit nil ; {nil,'simplified,'traffic-light}

      modus-themes-headings ; this is an alist: read the manual or its doc string
      '((1 . line)
        (2 . rainbow-line-no-bold)
        (t . no-bold))

      modus-themes-variable-pitch-ui nil
      modus-themes-variable-pitch-headings t
      modus-themes-scale-headings t
      modus-themes-scale-1 1.1
      modus-themes-scale-2 1.15
      modus-themes-scale-3 1.21
      modus-themes-scale-4 1.27
      modus-themes-scale-5 1.33)

Further information

Read the Info manual HTML version for how to install, load, enable, and customise the themes. If you are using the latest version of the themes, you already have the manual installed: evaluate (info "(modus-themes) Top") to start reading it.

The themes cover a broad range of packages and are highly customisable.

NOTE about old packages

Users coming from version 0.13.0 or earlier, are advised to read the announcement on the emacs-devel mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2021-03/msg00300.html. Or read issue 174: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/174.

The web page of the change log is also available: https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes-changelog/.

An Info manual should be distributed with the modus-themes package. Evaluate this form to access it directly:

(info "(modus-themes) Top")

Or visit it at: https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes.