Info Catalog elisp: Attribute Functions elisp: Faces elisp: Face Remapping

elisp: Displaying Faces

 
 37.12.4 Displaying Faces
 ------------------------
 
 When Emacs displays a given piece of text, the visual appearance of the
 text may be determined by faces drawn from different sources.  If these
 various sources together specify more than one face for a particular
 character, Emacs merges the attributes of the various faces.  Here is
 the order in which Emacs merges the faces, from highest to lowest
 priority:
 
    • If the text consists of a special glyph, the glyph can specify a
      particular face.  Glyphs.
 
    • If the text lies within an active region, Emacs highlights it using
      the ‘region’ face.  (emacs)Standard Faces.
 
    • If the text lies within an overlay with a non-‘nil’ ‘face’
      property, Emacs applies the face(s) specified by that property.  If
      the overlay has a ‘mouse-face’ property and the mouse is near
      enough to the overlay, Emacs applies the face or face attributes
      specified by the ‘mouse-face’ property instead.  Overlay
      Properties.
 
      When multiple overlays cover one character, an overlay with higher
      priority overrides those with lower priority.  Overlays.
 
    • If the text contains a ‘face’ or ‘mouse-face’ property, Emacs
      applies the specified faces and face attributes.  Special
      Properties.  (This is how Font Lock mode faces are applied.
      Font Lock Mode.)
 
    • If the text lies within the mode line of the selected window, Emacs
      applies the ‘mode-line’ face.  For the mode line of a non-selected
      window, Emacs applies the ‘mode-line-inactive’ face.  For a header
      line, Emacs applies the ‘header-line’ face.
 
    • If any given attribute has not been specified during the preceding
      steps, Emacs applies the attribute of the ‘default’ face.
 
    At each stage, if a face has a valid ‘:inherit’ attribute, Emacs
 treats any attribute with an ‘unspecified’ value as having the
 corresponding value drawn from the parent face(s).  Face
 Attributes.  Note that the parent face(s) may also leave the attribute
 unspecified; in that case, the attribute remains unspecified at the next
 level of face merging.
 

Info Catalog elisp: Attribute Functions elisp: Faces elisp: Face Remapping