font-lock-mode is the standard way to have Emacs
perform syntax highlighting in the current buffer. It is enabled
by default in Emacs 22.1 and later.
With font-lock-mode turned on, different types of
text will appear in different colors. For instance, in a
programming mode, variables will appear in one face, keywords in
a second, and comments in a third.
To turn font-lock-mode off within an existing
buffer, use M-x font-lock-mode <RET>.
In Emacs 21 and earlier versions, you could use the following
code in your .emacs file
to turn on font-lock-mode globally:
(global-font-lock-mode 1)
Highlighting a buffer with font-lock-mode can
take quite a while, and cause an annoying delay in display, so
several features exist to work around this.
In
Emacs 21 and later, turning on font-lock-mode
automatically activates the new Just-In-Time
fontification provided by jit-lock-mode.
jit-lock-mode defers the fontification of portions
of buffer until you actually need to see them, and can also
fontify while Emacs is idle. This makes display of the visible
portion of a buffer almost instantaneous. For details about
customizing jit-lock-mode, type C-h f
jit-lock-mode <RET>.
In
versions of Emacs before 21, different levels of decoration are
available, from slight to gaudy. More decoration means you need
to wait more time for a buffer to be fontified (or a faster
machine). To control how decorated your buffers should become,
set the value of font-lock-maximum-decoration in
your .emacs file, with a
nil value indicating default (usually minimum)
decoration, and a t value indicating the maximum
decoration. For the gaudiest possible look, then, include the
line
(setq font-lock-maximum-decoration t)
in your .emacs file. You can also set this variable
such that different modes are highlighted in a different ways;
for more information, see the documentation for
font-lock-maximum-decoration with C-h v
(or M-x describe-variable <RET>).
Also see the documentation for the function
font-lock-mode, available by typing C-h f
font-lock-mode (M-x describe-function <RET>
font-lock-mode <RET>).
To print buffers with the faces (i.e., colors and fonts)
intact, use M-x ps-print-buffer-with-faces or M-x
ps-print-region-with-faces. You will need a way to send
text to a PostScript printer, or a PostScript interpreter such as
Ghostscript; consult the documentation of the variables
ps-printer-name, ps-lpr-command, and
ps-lpr-switches for more details.