GNU Emacs Manual - Display Vars

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## Variables Controlling Display

This section contains information for customization only. Beginning users should skip it.

The variable `mode-line-inverse-video` controls whether the mode line is displayed in inverse video (assuming the terminal supports it); `nil` means don't do so. See section The Mode Line. If you specify the foreground color for the `modeline` face, and `mode-line-inverse-video` is non-`nil`, then the default background color for that face is the usual foreground color. See section Using Multiple Typefaces.

If the variable `inverse-video` is non-`nil`, Emacs attempts to invert all the lines of the display from what they normally are.

If the variable `visible-bell` is non-`nil`, Emacs attempts to make the whole screen blink when it would normally make an audible bell sound. This variable has no effect if your terminal does not have a way to make the screen blink.

When you reenter Emacs after suspending, Emacs normally clears the screen and redraws the entire display. On some terminals with more than one page of memory, it is possible to arrange the termcap entry so that the ``ti'` and ``te'` strings (output to the terminal when Emacs is entered and exited, respectively) switch between pages of memory so as to use one page for Emacs and another page for other output. Then you might want to set the variable `no-redraw-on-reenter` non-`nil`; this tells Emacs to assume, when resumed, that the screen page it is using still contains what Emacs last wrote there.

The variable `echo-keystrokes` controls the echoing of multi-character keys; its value is the number of seconds of pause required to cause echoing to start, or zero meaning don't echo at all. See section The Echo Area.

If the variable `ctl-arrow` is `nil`, control characters in the buffer are displayed with octal escape sequences, except for newline and tab. Altering the value of `ctl-arrow` makes it local to the current buffer; until that time, the default value is in effect. The default is initially `t`. See section `Display Tables' in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

Normally, a tab character in the buffer is displayed as whitespace which extends to the next display tab stop position, and display tab stops come at intervals equal to eight spaces. The number of spaces per tab is controlled by the variable `tab-width`, which is made local by changing it, just like `ctl-arrow`. Note that how the tab character in the buffer is displayed has nothing to do with the definition of `TAB` as a command. The variable `tab-width` must have an integer value between 1 and 1000, inclusive.

If the variable `truncate-lines` is non-`nil`, then each line of text gets just one screen line for display; if the text line is too long, display shows only the part that fits. If `truncate-lines` is `nil`, then long text lines display as more than one screen line, enough to show the whole text of the line. See section Continuation Lines. Altering the value of `truncate-lines` makes it local to the current buffer; until that time, the default value is in effect. The default is initially `nil`.

If the variable `truncate-partial-width-windows` is non-`nil`, it forces truncation rather than continuation in any window less than the full width of the screen or frame, regardless of the value of `truncate-lines`. For information about side-by-side windows, see section Splitting Windows. See also section `Display' in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

The variable `baud-rate` holds the output speed of the terminal, as far as Emacs knows. Setting this variable does not change the speed of actual data transmission, but the value is used for calculations such as padding. It also affects decisions about whether to scroll part of the screen or redraw it instead--even when using a window system. (We designed it this way, despite the fact that a window system has no true "output speed," to give you a way to tune these decisions.)

You can customize the way any particular character code is displayed by means of a display table. See section `Display Tables' in The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

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