Emacs: Make Whitespaces Visible

Here's how to make whitespaces visible {spaces, tabs, newlines}. (in emacs 23 (released 2010-05) or later)

Alt+x whitespace-mode

Make whilespace visible. Toggle on/off, for current file.

Alt+x global-whitespace-mode

Do it in every buffer.

Alt+x whitespace-newline-mode

Make just newline character visible.

Alt+x global-whitespace-newline-mode

Do it in every buffer.

Setting Up whitespace-mode

You can configure whitespace mode to use a simple color scheme.

Download sample test file: whitespace_sample_file.txt

For a simple and clean whitespace mode setup, put the following in your emacs init.

(progn
 ;; Make whitespace-mode with very basic background coloring for whitespaces.
  ;; http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/whitespace-mode.html
  (setq whitespace-style (quote (face spaces tabs newline space-mark tab-mark newline-mark )))

  ;; Make whitespace-mode and whitespace-newline-mode use “¶” for end of line char and “▷” for tab.
  (setq whitespace-display-mappings
        ;; all numbers are unicode codepoint in decimal. e.g. (insert-char 182 1)
        '(
          (space-mark 32 [183] [46]) ; SPACE 32 「 」, 183 MIDDLE DOT 「·」, 46 FULL STOP 「.」
          (newline-mark 10 [182 10]) ; LINE FEED,
          (tab-mark 9 [9655 9] [92 9]) ; tab
          )))

In the above, the numbers are Unicode codepoint in decimal. Depending on your choice of font, some glyphs may not show up or correctly. If so, you can try the following glyphs.

[see ASCII Character Symbols ␀ ␣ ¶]

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