Andy Piper <andy(a)xemacs.org&gt; writes: For one, I don't want it to inherit. :-) I prefer the gray-bg modeline. In fact, it doesn't inherit because it has a background color (gray) specified, and it takes precedence over the background pixmap. This is a feature. There is also a bug, though: if a face inherits both a background pixmap and a background color, the above feature doesn't work; inherited background pixmap takes precedence over inherited background color, even if they come from the same depth of inheritance chain. For this reason, my .emacs has this: (set-face-background-pixmap 'modeline-mousable [nothing]) (set-face-background-pixmap 'modeline-buffer-id [nothing]) However, the question I ask myself is why the lettering on my dark background progress-gauge-thing is black. I'd want them to be white, as it's the case with the buffer tabs. I can't argue for one or the other, as I don't understand the difference between the two faces, or the issues involved.