Visually improving emacs

Question

Hey all, I'm looking for a more visually appealing emacs. Is there anything I can do to make it look more aesthetically appealing or more up to date?

I understand that its not how it looks but how it functions that counts, but I was wondering if anyone had any success in beautifying emacs.

My platforms are Linux and Windows. I'm aware of the social stigmatism that 'mousifying' emacs has in the community so there might not be much out there but I thought I'd ask anyway.

I guess i'm just looking for it to 'fit' nicer in my current environment

Answer 1

These are the .emacs settings I use that affect my visual appearance.

I use a fairly popular color theme. It's called Zenburn and very easy on the eyes. There's a lot of other ones, but this is the one I use.

;;Syntax highlighting, can we say yes please?
(global-font-lock-mode t)

;Lets us see col # at the bottom. very handy.
(column-number-mode 1)

;buffer-name completion for C-x b; makes life much easier.
(iswitchb-mode 1)



;;;; Removes gui elements ;;;;
(if (fboundp 'scroll-bar-mode) (scroll-bar-mode -1))  ; no gui scrollbare
(if (fboundp 'tool-bar-mode) (tool-bar-mode -1))      ; no toolbar!
(if (fboundp 'menu-bar-mode) (menu-bar-mode -1))      ; no menubar



;;;; color theme...use zenburn ;;;;
(require 'color-theme)
(require 'zenburn)
(color-theme-initialize)
(zenburn)

And, for linky goodness -

Zenburn homepage; github; and color-theme.

Answer 2

A couple of pages at the Emacs Wiki which may be of interest:

• CategoryDisplay (see especially Saving screen real-estate)
• CategoryFaces