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D.2 Table of X Resources for Emacs

The table below lists the X resource names that Emacs recognizes. Note that some of the resources have no effect in Emacs compiled with various X toolkits (GTK+, Lucid, etc.)—we indicate below when this is the case.

alpha (class Alpha)

Sets the ‘alpha’ frame parameter, determining frame transparency (see Frame Parameters in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual).

alphaBackground (class AlphaBackground)

Sets the ‘alpha-background’ frame parameter, determining background transparency (see Frame Parameters in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual).

background (class Background)

Background color (see Colors for Faces).

bitmapIcon (class BitmapIcon)

Tell the window manager to display the Emacs icon if ‘on’; don’t do so if ‘off’. See Icons, for a description of the icon.

borderColor (class BorderColor)

Color of the frame’s external border. This has no effect if Emacs is compiled with GTK+ support.

borderWidth (class BorderWidth)

Width of the frame’s external border, in pixels. This has no effect if Emacs is compiled with GTK+ support.

cursorBlink (class CursorBlink)

If the value of this resource is ‘off’ or ‘false’ or ‘0’ at startup, Emacs disables Blink Cursor mode (see Displaying the Cursor).

cursorColor (class Foreground)

Text cursor color. If this resource is specified when Emacs starts up, Emacs sets its value as the background color of the cursor face (see Text Faces).

font (class Font)

Font name for the default face (see Fonts). You can also specify a fontset name (see Fontsets).

fontBackend (class FontBackend)

Comma-delimited list of backend(s) to use for drawing fonts, in order of precedence. For instance, the value ‘x,xft’ tells Emacs to draw fonts using the X core font driver, falling back on the Xft font driver if that fails. Normally, you should leave this resource unset, in which case Emacs tries using all available font backends.

foreground (class Foreground)

Default foreground color for text.

fullscreen (class Fullscreen)

The desired fullscreen size. The value can be one of fullboth, maximized, fullwidth or fullheight, which correspond to the command-line options ‘-fs’, ‘-mm’, ‘-fw’, and ‘-fh’ (see Options for Window Size and Position). Note that this applies to the initial frame only.

geometry (class Geometry)

Window size and position. The value should be a size and position specification, of the same form as in the ‘-g’ or ‘--geometry’ command-line option (see Options for Window Size and Position).

The size applies to all frames in the Emacs session, but the position applies only to the initial Emacs frame (or, in the case of a resource for a specific frame name, only that frame).

Be careful not to specify this resource as ‘emacs*geometry’, as that may affect individual menus as well as the main Emacs frame.

horizontalScrollBars (class ScrollBars)

If the value of this resource is ‘off’ or ‘false’ or ‘0’, Emacs disables Horizontal Scroll Bar mode at startup (see Scroll Bars).

iconName (class Title)

Name to display in the icon.

internalBorder (class BorderWidth)

Width of the internal frame border, in pixels.

lineSpacing (class LineSpacing) ¶

Additional space between lines, in pixels.

menuBackground (class Background) ¶

The background color of the menus in non-toolkit versions of Emacs. (For toolkit versions, see Lucid Menu And Dialog X Resources, also see Motif Menu X Resources, and see GTK+ resources.)

menuBar (class MenuBar) ¶

If the value of this resource is ‘off’ or ‘false’ or ‘0’, Emacs disables Menu Bar mode at startup (see Menu Bars).

minibuffer (class Minibuffer)

If ‘none’, Emacs will not make a minibuffer in this frame; it will use a separate minibuffer frame instead.

paneFont (class Font) ¶

Font name for menu pane titles, in non-toolkit versions of Emacs. (For toolkit versions, see Lucid Menu And Dialog X Resources, also see Motif Menu X Resources, and see GTK+ resources.)

paneForeground (class Foreground) ¶

Foreground color for menu pane titles, in non-toolkit versions of Emacs. (For toolkit versions, see Lucid Menu And Dialog X Resources, also see Motif Menu X Resources, and see GTK+ resources.)

pointerColor (class Foreground)

Color of the mouse cursor. This has no effect in many graphical desktop environments, as they do not let Emacs change the mouse cursor this way.

privateColormap (class PrivateColormap)

If ‘on’, use a private color map, in the case where the default visual of class PseudoColor and Emacs is using it.

reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo)

Switch foreground and background default colors if ‘on’, use colors as specified if ‘off’.

screenGamma (class ScreenGamma) ¶

Gamma correction for colors, equivalent to the frame parameter screen-gamma.

scrollBar (class ScrollBar) ¶

If the value of this resource is ‘off’ or ‘false’ or ‘0’, Emacs disables Scroll Bar mode at startup (see Scroll Bars).

scrollBarWidth (class ScrollBarWidth) ¶

The scroll bar width in pixels, equivalent to the frame parameter scroll-bar-width. Do not set this resource if Emacs is compiled with GTK+ support.

selectionFont (class SelectionFont)

Font name for pop-up menu items, in non-toolkit versions of Emacs. (For toolkit versions, see Lucid Menu And Dialog X Resources, also see Motif Menu X Resources, and see GTK+ resources.)

selectionForeground (class SelectionForeground)

Foreground color for pop-up menu items, in non-toolkit versions of Emacs. (For toolkit versions, see Lucid Menu And Dialog X Resources, also see Motif Menu X Resources, and see GTK+ resources.)

selectionTimeout (class SelectionTimeout)

Number of milliseconds to wait for a selection reply. If the selection owner doesn’t reply in this time, we give up. A value of 0 means wait as long as necessary.

synchronous (class Synchronous) ¶

Run Emacs in synchronous mode if ‘on’. Synchronous mode is useful for debugging X problems.

title (class Title)

Name to display in the title bar of the initial Emacs frame.

toolBar (class ToolBar) ¶

If the value of this resource is ‘off’ or ‘false’ or ‘0’, Emacs disables Tool Bar mode at startup (see Tool Bars).

tabBar (class TabBar) ¶

If the value of this resource is ‘on’ or ‘yes’ or ‘1’, Emacs enables Tab Bar mode at startup (see Tab Bars).

useXIM (class UseXIM) ¶

Disable use of X input methods (XIM) if ‘false’ or ‘off’. This is only relevant if your Emacs is built with XIM support. It might be useful to turn off XIM on slow X client/server links.

inputStyle (class InputStyle) ¶

This resource controls how preview text generated by X input methods is displayed. Its value can be on of the following:

‘callback’

Display the contents of the preview text in the current buffer.

‘offthespot’

Display the preview text inside a separate area of the display provided by Emacs.

‘overthespot’

Display the preview text inside a popup window at the location of point in the current window.

‘none’

Let the input method decide how to display itself. This is usually equivalent to ‘overthespot’, but it might work with more input methods.

‘native’

Use the toolkit for handling input methods. This is currently implemented only on GTK.

‘root’

Use some location on display specific to the input method for displaying the preview text.

synchronizeResize (class SynchronizeResize)

If ‘off’ or ‘false’, Emacs will not try to tell the window manager when it has finished redrawing the display in response to a frame being resized. Otherwise, the window manager will postpone drawing a frame that was just resized until its contents are updated, which prevents blank areas of a frame that have not yet been painted from being displayed. If set to ‘extended’, it will enable use of an alternative frame synchronization protocol, which might be supported by some compositing window managers that don’t support the protocol Emacs uses by default, and causes Emacs to synchronize display with the monitor refresh rate when a compatible compositing window manager is in use.

verticalScrollBars (class ScrollBars)

Give frames scroll bars on the left if ‘left’, on the right if ‘right’; don’t have scroll bars if ‘off’ (see Scroll Bars).

visualClass (class VisualClass)

The visual class for X color display. If specified, the value should start with one of ‘TrueColor’, ‘PseudoColor’, ‘DirectColor’, ‘StaticColor’, ‘GrayScale’, and ‘StaticGray’, followed by ‘-depth’, where depth is the number of color planes.

You can also use X resources to customize individual Emacs faces (see Text Faces). For example, setting the resource ‘face.attributeForeground’ is equivalent to customizing the ‘foreground’ attribute of the face face. However, we recommend customizing faces from within Emacs, instead of using X resources. See Customizing Faces.