37.16 The display Property

The display text property (or overlay property) is used to insert images into text, and to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the display property should be a display specification, or a list or vector containing several display specifications. Display specifications in the same display property value generally apply in parallel to the text they cover.

If several sources (overlays and/or a text property) specify values for the display property, only one of the values takes effect, following the rules of get-char-property. See Examining Properties.

The rest of this section describes several kinds of display specifications and what they mean.