Didier Verna <verna(a)inf.enst.fr&gt; writes in xemacs-beta(a)xemacs.org: Since XEmacs 19.14. Perhaps the color test performed by XEmacs is suspect. Evaluate (device-class) in *scratch*. If it returns `color', then XEmacs thinks it's running on a color terminal, else it returns `mono'. If I execute `xemacs -nw' in an XTerm (an orphaned ansi color xterm variant with scrollbars on the right) it reports `mono' to the above test although Lynx, color-ls and jed (to name three programs off the top of my head) have no problem displaying color. kterm is always detected as color. In src/redisplay-tty.c (init_tty_for_redisplay): { /* check for ANSI set-foreground and set-background strings, and assume color if so. #### we should support the other (non-ANSI) ways of specifying color, too. */ char foobuf[500]; char *fooptr = foobuf; if ((tgetstr ("AB", &fooptr) && tgetstr ("AF", &fooptr)) || (tgetstr ("Sf", &fooptr) && tgetstr ("Sb", &fooptr)) || ((tgetnum ("Co") > 0) && (tgetnum ("pa") > 0))) DEVICE_CLASS (d) = Qcolor; else DEVICE_CLASS (d) = Qmono; }