Programs running under the X Window System organize their user options under a hierarchy of classes and resources. You can specify default values for these options in your X resource file, usually named ~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources. Changes in this file do not take effect immediately, because the X server stores its own list of resources; to update it, use the command xrdb—for instance, xrdb ~/.Xdefaults. Settings specified via X resources in general override the equivalent settings in Emacs init files (Init File), in particular for parameters of the initial frame (Frame Parameters). (MS-Windows systems do not support X resource files; on such systems, Emacs looks for X resources in the Windows Registry, first under the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\GNU\Emacs, which affects only the current user and override the system-wide settings, and then under the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GNU\Emacs, which affects all users of the system. The menu and scroll bars are native widgets on MS-Windows, so they are only customizable via the system-wide settings in the Display Control Panel. You can also set resources using the -xrm command line option, as explained below.) Each line in the X resource file specifies a value for one option or for a collection of related options. The order in which the lines appear in the file does not matter. Each resource specification consists of a program name and a resource name. Case distinctions are significant in each of these names. Here is an example:

emacs.cursorColor: dark green

The program name is the name of the executable file to which the resource applies. For Emacs, this is normally emacs. To specify a definition that applies to all instances of Emacs, regardless of the name of the Emacs executable, use Emacs. The resource name is the name of a program setting. For instance, Emacs recognizes a cursorColor resource that controls the color of the text cursor. Resources are grouped into named classes. For instance, the Foreground class contains the cursorColor, foreground and pointerColor resources (Table of Resources). Instead of using a resource name, you can use a class name to specify the default value for all resources in that class, like this:

emacs.Foreground: dark green

Emacs does not process X resources at all if you set the variable inhibit-x-resources to a non-nil value. If you invoke Emacs with the -Q (or --quick) command-line option, inhibit-x-resources is automatically set to t (Initial Options). In addition, you can use the following command-line options to override the X resources file:

-name name, --name=name

This option sets the program name of the initial Emacs frame to name. It also sets the title of the initial frame to name. This option does not affect subsequent frames. If you don't specify this option, the default is to use the Emacs executable's name as the program name. For consistency, -name also specifies the name to use for other resource values that do not belong to any particular frame. The resources that name Emacs invocations also belong to a class, named Emacs. If you write Emacs instead of emacs, the resource applies to all frames in all Emacs jobs, regardless of frame titles and regardless of the name of the executable file.

-xrm resource-value, --xrm=resource-value

This option specifies X resource values for the present Emacs job. resource-value should have the same format that you would use inside a file of X resources. Several -xrm options are possible to include multiple resource specifications. You can also use #include "/filename/" as resource-value to include a file full of resource specifications. Resource values specified with -xrm take precedence over all other resource specifications.

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.

background (class Background)

Background color (Colors).

bitmapIcon (class BitmapIcon)

Tell the window manager to display the Emacs icon if on; don't do so if off. Icons X, 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 (Cursor Display).

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 (Faces).

font (class Font)

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

fontBackend (class FontBackend)

Comma-delimited list of backend(s) to use for drawing fonts, in order of precedence. For instance, the value x 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 (Window Size X). 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 (Window Size X). 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 (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 Resources, also see Motif 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 (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 Resources, also see Motif 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 Resources, also see Motif 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 (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 Resources, also see Motif 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 Resources, also see Motif 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 (Tool Bars).

tabBar (class TabBar)

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

verticalScrollBars (class ScrollBars)

Give frames scroll bars on the left if left, on the right if right; don't have scroll bars if off (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 (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. Face Customization.

If Emacs is compiled with the X toolkit support using Lucid widgets, you can use X resources to customize the appearance of the menu bar (Menu Bar), pop-up menus, and dialog boxes (Dialog Boxes). The resources for the menu bar fall in the pane.menubar class (following, as always, either the name of the Emacs executable or Emacs for all Emacs invocations). The resources for the pop-up menu are in the menu* class. The resources for dialog boxes are in the dialog* class. For example, to display menu bar entries with the Courier-12 font (Fonts), write this:

Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12

Lucid widgets can display multilingual text in your locale. To enable this, specify a fontSet resource instead of a font resource. Fontsets. If both font and fontSet resources are specified, the fontSet resource is used. Here is a list of resources for menu bars, pop-up menus, and dialogs:

font

Font for menu item text.

fontSet

Fontset for menu item text.

background

Background color.

buttonForeground

Foreground color for a selected item.

foreground

Foreground color.

horizontalSpacing

Horizontal spacing in pixels between items. Default is 3.

verticalSpacing

Vertical spacing in pixels between items. Default is 2.

arrowSpacing

Horizontal spacing between the arrow (which indicates a submenu) and the associated text. Default is 10.

shadowThickness

Thickness of shadow lines for 3D buttons, arrows, and other graphical elements. Default is 1.

margin

Margin of the menu bar, in characters. Default is 1.

If Emacs is compiled with the X toolkit support using Motif or LessTif widgets, you can use X resources to customize the appearance of the menu bar (Menu Bar), pop-up menus, and dialog boxes (Dialog Boxes). However, the resources are organized differently from Lucid widgets. The resource names for the menu bar are in the pane.menubar class, and they must be specified in this form:

Emacs.pane.menubar.@var{subwidget}.@var{resource}: @var{value}

For pop-up menus, the resources are in the menu* class, instead of pane.menubar. For dialog boxes, they are in dialog. In each case, each individual menu string is a subwidget; the subwidget's name is the same as the menu item string. For example, the File menu in the menu bar is a subwidget named emacs.pane.menubar.File. Typically, you want to specify the same resources for the whole menu bar. To do this, use * instead of a specific subwidget name. For example, to specify the font 8x16 for all menu bar items, including submenus, write this:

Emacs.pane.menubar.*.fontList: 8x16

Each item in a submenu also has its own name for X resources; for example, the File submenu has an item named Save (current buffer). A resource specification for a submenu item looks like this:

Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.@var{menu}.@var{item}.@var{resource}: @var{value}

For example, here's how to specify the font for the Save (current buffer) item:

Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.File.Save (current buffer).fontList: 8x16

For an item in a second-level submenu, such as Complete Word under Spell Checking under Tools, the resource fits this template:

Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.popup_*.@var{menu}.@var{resource}: @var{value}

For example,

Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.popup_*.Spell Checking.Complete Word: @var{value}

(This should be one long line.) If you want the submenu items to look different from the menu bar itself, you must first specify the resource for all of them, then override the value for submenus alone. Here is an example:

Emacs.pane.menubar.*.fontList: 9x18
Emacs.pane.menubar.popup_*.fontList: 8x16

To specify resources for the LessTif file-selection box, use fsb*, like this:

Emacs.fsb*.fontList: 8x16

Here is a list of resources for LessTif menu bars and pop-up menus:

armColor

The color to show in an armed button.

fontList

The font to use.

marginBottom, marginHeight, marginLeft, marginRight, marginTop, marginWidth

Amount of space to leave around the item, within the border.

borderWidth

The width of the border around the menu item, on all sides.

shadowThickness

The width of the border shadow.

bottomShadowColor

The color for the border shadow, on the bottom and the right.

topShadowColor

The color for the border shadow, on the top and the left.

If Emacs is compiled with GTK+ toolkit support, the simplest way to customize its GTK+ widgets (e.g., menus, dialogs, tool bars and scroll bars) is to choose an appropriate GTK+ theme, for example with the GNOME theme selector. In GTK+ version 2, you can also use GTK+ resources to customize the appearance of GTK+ widgets used by Emacs. These resources are specified in either the file ~/.emacs.d/gtkrc (for Emacs-specific GTK+ resources), or ~/.gtkrc-2.0 (for general GTK+ resources). We recommend using ~/.emacs.d/gtkrc, since GTK+ seems to ignore ~/.gtkrc-2.0 when running GConf with GNOME. Note, however, that some GTK+ themes may override customizations in ~/.emacs.d/gtkrc; there is nothing we can do about this. GTK+ resources do not affect aspects of Emacs unrelated to GTK+ widgets, such as fonts and colors in the main Emacs window; those are governed by normal X resources (Resources). The following sections describe how to customize GTK+ resources for Emacs. For details about GTK+ resources, see the GTK+ API document at https://developer.gnome.org/gtk2/stable/gtk2-Resource-Files.html. In GTK+ version 3, GTK+ resources have been replaced by a completely different system. The appearance of GTK+ widgets is now determined by CSS-like style files: gtk-3.0/gtk.css in the GTK+ installation directory, and ~/.themes/theme/gtk-3.0/gtk.css for local style settings (where theme is the name of the current GTK+ theme). Therefore, the description of GTK+ resources in this section does not apply to GTK+ 3. For details about the GTK+ 3 styling system, see https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/3.0/GtkCssProvider.html.

gtk-font-name = "courier 12"

# @r{Define the style @samp{my_style}.}
style "my_style"
@{
  font_name = "helvetica bold 14"
@}

# @r{Specify that widget type @samp{*emacs-menuitem*} uses @samp{my_style}.}
widget "*emacs-menuitem*" style "my_style"

widget "Emacs.pane.menubar.*" style "my_style"

style "scroll"
@{
  fg[NORMAL] = "red"@ @ @ @ @ # @r{Arrow color.}
  bg[NORMAL] = "yellow"@ @ # @r{Thumb and background around arrow.}
  bg[ACTIVE] = "blue"@ @ @ @ # @r{Trough color.}
  bg[PRELIGHT] = "white"@ # @r{Thumb color when the mouse is over it.}
@}

widget "*verticalScrollBar*" style "scroll"

widget "*" style "my_style"

widget "Emacs.pane.menubar.*" style "my_style"
widget_class "GtkWindow.GtkVBox.GtkMenuBar.*" style "my_style"

widget "*emacs-dialog*" style "my_dialog_style"
widget "*emacs-filedialog* style "my_file_style"
widget "*emacs-menuitem* style "my_menu_style"

widget_class "*Menu*" style "my_menu_style"

pixmap_path "/usr/share/pixmaps:/usr/include/X11/pixmaps"

style "default"
@{
  font_name = "helvetica 12"

  bg[NORMAL] = @{ 0.83, 0.80, 0.73 @}
  bg[SELECTED] = @{ 0.0, 0.55, 0.55 @}
  bg[INSENSITIVE] = @{ 0.77, 0.77, 0.66 @}
  bg[ACTIVE] = @{ 0.0, 0.55, 0.55 @}
  bg[PRELIGHT] = @{ 0.0, 0.55, 0.55 @}

  fg[NORMAL] = "black"
  fg[SELECTED] = @{ 0.9, 0.9, 0.9 @}
  fg[ACTIVE] = "black"
  fg[PRELIGHT] = @{ 0.9, 0.9, 0.9 @}

  base[INSENSITIVE] = "#777766"
  text[INSENSITIVE] = @{ 0.60, 0.65, 0.57 @}

  bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "background.xpm"
  bg_pixmap[INSENSITIVE] = "background.xpm"
  bg_pixmap[ACTIVE] = "background.xpm"
  bg_pixmap[PRELIGHT] = "<none>"

@}

style "ruler" = "default"
@{
  font_name = "helvetica 8"
@}