AE.8 Window Color Options

On a color display, you can specify which color to use for various parts of the Emacs display. To find out what colors are available on your system, type M-x list-colors-display, or press C-Mouse-2 and select `Display Colors' from the pop-up menu. If you do not specify colors, on windowed displays the default for the background is white and the default for all other colors is black. On a monochrome display, the foreground is black, the background is white, and the border is gray if the display supports that. On terminals, the background is usually black and the foreground is white.

Here is a list of the command-line options for specifying colors:

`-fg color'

`--foreground-color=color'

Specify the foreground color. color should be a standard color name, or a numeric specification of the color's red, green, and blue components as in `#4682B4' or `RGB:46/82/B4'.

`-bg color'

`--background-color=color'

Specify the background color.

`-bd color'

`--border-color=color'

Specify the color of the border of the X window.

`-cr color'

`--cursor-color=color'

Specify the color of the Emacs cursor which indicates where point is.

`-ms color'

`--mouse-color=color'

Specify the color for the mouse cursor when the mouse is in the Emacs window.

`-r'

`-rv'

`--reverse-video'

Reverse video--swap the foreground and background colors.

For example, to use a coral mouse cursor and a slate blue text cursor, enter:

emacs -ms coral -cr 'slate blue' &

You can reverse the foreground and background colors through the `-rv' option or with the X resource `reverseVideo'.

The `-fg', `-bg', and `-rv' options function on text-only terminals as well as on window systems.