xemacs -vanilla, actually all .*emacs* moved out of the way Options/Customize/Faces... Choose all. Open Bold and Default. Both have the "Size" attribute inactive. Sets the default size to "8pt" and use "set for current session". -> Most fonts become 8pt as asked -> the bold, italic and bold italic faces stay at 12pt (bug or feature?) -> the background becomes white (huh?) -> the modeline background becomes white (huh????) Look at the already opened "Bold" face information. Nothing changed, but the face is still 12pt. Close and reopen the face information. Oh! "Size" is now activated and set to "12", without any unit (huh?). Select Bold.Size, retype 12, use Set for current session -> the size changes, the default unit isn't pt (huh?) I have some other problems but they seem to come from by environment so I'm going to track and kill them. OG.