This is what I'm trying to find out from you. I think the 4 line init.el in my 2 second post in this issue makes that clear.ДЄnd what that comes after is causing the font color to be wrong? Well according to, no site-start doesn't do that, unless you've changed that behavior.ДЄlso, normally, the theme would come after site-start, so itвЂ™s not quite clear that this is whatвЂ™s causing it.Д¬orrect, but as you can see from my previous comment, I did change the order, and something under site-start is violating theming.Дuring startup, when is the theme applied, If you load site-start, itвЂ™ll load and execute everything. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread. You are receiving this because you commented. So if i'd have to guess, it's something that is getting setup in site-start.el (maybe aquamacs.el?), and getting called after the init file is loaded. We get a split Aquamacs frame with source.c in the top window, and the startup screen in the bottom window, both correctly fontified with our chosen theme. $ aquamacs -args -no-site-file ~/source.c Switching to the debugger again and hitting c to continue, we get a *scratch* frame+buffer with our theme, the background is correct, but the default text is black. (Also, the font has been set to Lucida Grande.)ДЄnd starting the process over again, we get an Aquamacs frame fontified with our chosen theme, but the background is white. In the *Backtrace* frame, hit c again to finish and we eventually get a *scratch* buffer with text color set to black. Now both frames are fontified, correctly, with our chosen theme (tango-dark). Hit c to load our theme, and drop to the debugger again. C-x 5 b *Bac to open a frame at the *Backtrace* buffer that's debugging our init.el file. (Black text on white background, red comments, purple strings, etc).

We get an Aquamacs frame with the buffer of source.c fontified in the default emacs theme.

Start Aquamacs with something that will get fontified: $ cd ~/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/ My fix is to type M-x custom-themes (I can't see 'custom-themes' in the minibuffer because the font color is the same color as the background), and when the buffer with the custom themes opens I uncheck the wombat theme and recheck it (I can't see some of the text in the custom themes buffer either because it is the same color as the background).ДЄlso, if I want to use a third party custom theme, where should I put the file? My aquamacs preferences file, Preferences.el, is in the directory: The color of the text is actually a few shades darker than the background, which creates a shadow effect: I can see where the white text was, but I can't read it anymore. However, if I quit aquamacs and relaunch it, the text that was white in the wombat theme is now nearly the same color as the background, making the text unreadable. I checked the checkbox for the theme wombat, and then I clicked the Save Theme Settings button in the buffer. When I type M-x custom-themes, I am presented with a buffer listing about 15 custom themes that come with aquamacs.

Change aquamacs theme