To make my Org mode visually appealing, I’ve done the following steps.

  • Customize faces for different Org headings and emphasis. For example,

    (custom-set-faces
 '(org-agenda-structure ((t (:foreground "deep sky blue"))))
 '(org-block ((t (:inherit shadow :extend t :background "beige" :foreground "dark slate gray"))))
 '(org-code ((t (:background "light cyan" :foreground "dark cyan"))))
 '(org-date ((t (:background "thistle1" :foreground "Purple" :underline t))))
 '(org-drawer ((t (:foreground "deep sky blue"))))
 '(org-footnote ((t (:foreground "medium sea green" :underline t :height 0.9))))
 '(org-level-1 ((t (:inherit outline-1 :extend nil :height 1.3))))
 '(org-level-2 ((t (:inherit outline-2 :extend nil :height 1.2))))
 '(org-level-3 ((t (:inherit outline-3 :extend nil :height 1.1))))
 '(org-level-4 ((t (:inherit outline-4 :extend nil))))
 '(org-meta-line ((t (:inherit font-lock-comment-face :height 0.8))))
 '(org-quote ((t (:inherit org-block :background "beige" :foreground "dark green" :height 1.4 :family "EB Garamond"))))
 '(org-ref-cite-face ((t (:inherit org-link :background "DarkSeaGreen1" :foreground "forest green" :box (:line-width 2 :color "grey75" :style released-button)))))
 '(org-scheduled-previously ((t (:foreground "dark violet"))))
 '(org-tag ((t (:background "khaki" :foreground "dark green" :weight bold :family "EB Garamond"))))
 '(org-todo ((t (:background "#fdf6e3" :foreground "#dc322f" :inverse-video nil :underline nil :slant normal :weight bold))))
 '(org-verbatim ((t (:inherit (shadow org-code))))))

  • Use my favorite KaiTi for Chinese and EB Garamond for English in Org quote and verse blocks.

    ;; Create a new fontset for org block and verse.
(create-fontset-from-fontset-spec
 (font-xlfd-name
  (font-spec :family "courier"
             :registry "fontset-org quote")))
    
(dolist (charset '(han cjk-misc chinese-gbk kana))
  (set-fontset-font "fontset-org quote" charset (font-spec :family "KaiTi")))
(dolist (charset '(big5 big5-hkscs chinese-big5-1 chinese-big5-2))
  (set-fontset-font "fontset-org quote" charset (font-spec :family "AR PL UKai TW")))
(set-fontset-font "fontset-org quote" 'ascii
                  (font-spec :family "EB Garamond"))
    
;; Enable fontification of quote and verse blocks.
(setq org-fontify-quote-and-verse-blocks 
(set-face-attribute 'org-quote nil :fontset "fontset-org quote")
  • Enable org-indent-mode to add visual indentation to different levels of headings and contents. Also remember to set org-adapt-indentation as nil. Otherwise, besides the visual indentation, actual indentation in the text is still there, and when there are many levels, the effective width of a paragraph will be very narrow. When the paragraph contains many LaTeX equations to be rendered (via texfrag for example), they will be scattered into several lines, which is difficult to read.
  • org-modern-mode looks great but is incompatible with org-indent-mode in that the visual indentation of a whole source code block will become zero, if two modes are enabled at the same time. Therefore, I do not use org-modern-mode anymore.
  • Enable org-visual-indent-mode to add vertical lines which connect headings on a same level.

The final effect of my Org mode is as below.

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