Solaire mode

If only certain buffers could be so grossly incandescent.

solaire-mode is an aesthetic plugin that helps visually distinguish file-visiting windows from other types of windows (like popups or sidebars) by giving them a slightly different -- often brighter -- background.

Praise the sun.

Note:

• Uses face-remapping-alist, which other plugins may overwrite.
• Tested mainly on Emacs 25.1+
• This was once a part of doom-themes as doom-buffer-mode
• Try jumping.

Screenshot

Install

Solaire-mode is available on MELPA: M-x package-install RET solaire-mode

Doom Emacs

Doom installs this package as part of the :ui doom module. No additional configuration is needed.

Configuration

solaire-mode (or solaire-global-mode) must be activated before your theme is loaded:

(solaire-global-mode +1)

(load-theme 'my-theme t)

Here are some example use-package configs for solaire-mode:

;; A simple config:
(use-package solaire-mode
  :hook (after-init . solaire-global-mode))


;; A more complex, more lazy-loaded config
(use-package solaire-mode
  ;; Ensure solaire-mode is running in all solaire-mode buffers
  :hook (change-major-mode . turn-on-solaire-mode)
  ;; ...if you use auto-revert-mode, this prevents solaire-mode from turning
  ;; itself off every time Emacs reverts the file
  :hook (after-revert . turn-on-solaire-mode)
  ;; To enable solaire-mode unconditionally for certain modes:
  :hook (ediff-prepare-buffer . solaire-mode)
  ;; Highlight the minibuffer when it is activated:
  :hook (minibuffer-setup . solaire-mode-in-minibuffer)
  :config
  ;; The bright and dark background colors are automatically swapped the first 
  ;; time solaire-mode is activated. Namely, the backgrounds of the `default` and
  ;; `solaire-default-face` faces are swapped. This is done because the colors 
  ;; are usually the wrong way around. If you don't want this, you can disable it:
  (setq solaire-mode-auto-swap-bg nil)

  (solaire-global-mode +1))

Configuration

• By default, solaire-mode's effects will be invisible. Its faces must be defined:

  • solaire-default-face
  • solaire-minibuffer-face
  • solaire-line-number-face
  • solaire-hl-line-face
  • solaire-org-hide-face
  • solaire-mode-line-face
  • solaire-mode-line-inactive-face

• What faces get remapped is controlled by solaire-mode-remap-faces and solaire-mode-remap-modeline.

  By default, these faces are affected:

  • default
  • hl-line
  • linum
  • org-hide
  • mode-line
  • mode-line-inactive

• The function in solaire-mode-real-buffer-fn determines if a buffer should be brightened or not.

• solaire-mode-remap-fringe controls whether the fringe's background is changed (and maintained) when solaire-mode is active. Setting it to nil will disable this behavior. To change what background it is changed to, modify the solaire-fringe-face face's :background.

Themes that support solaire-mode out of the box

The only (known) themes to support solaire-mode are:

• doom-themes
• spacemacs-theme
• wilmersdorf-theme
• modus-themes

Jolly cooperation with other plugins

• Latex previews in org-mode may have a mismatched background color. You can fix this by setting the :background property in org-format-latex-options to 'default:

  (with-eval-after-load 'org
    (plist-put org-format-latex-options :background 'default))
  

• By default, solaire-mode remaps the mode-line faces. This interferes with certain mode-line packages like telephone-line or powerline. You can undo this with:

  (setq solaire-mode-remap-modeline nil)
  

• When persp-mode loads a perspective from file, it doesn't restore solaire-mode. The function solaire-mode-restore-persp-mode-buffers is available for this:

  (advice-add #'persp-load-state-from-file :after #'solaire-mode-restore-persp-mode-buffers)
  

• Don't trust Patches!