+@findex list-faces-display
+ To see what faces are currently defined, and what they look like,
+type @kbd{M-x list-faces-display}. With a prefix argument, this
+prompts for a regular expression, and displays only faces with names
+matching that regular expression (@pxref{Regexps}).
+
+ It's possible for a given face to look different in different
+frames. For instance, some text terminals do not support all face
+attributes, particularly font, height, and width, and some support a
+limited range of colors.
+
+@cindex background color
+@cindex default face
+ You can customize a face to alter its appearance, and save those
+changes for future Emacs sessions. @xref{Face Customization}. A face
+does not have to specify every single attribute; often it inherits
+most attributes from another face. Any ultimately unspecified
+attribute is taken from the face named @code{default}.
+
+ The @code{default} face is the default for displaying text, and all
+of its attributes are specified. Its background color is also used as
+the frame's background color. @xref{Colors}.
+
+@cindex cursor face
+ Another special face is the @code{cursor} face. On graphical
+displays, the background color of this face is used to draw the text
+cursor. None of the other attributes of this face have any effect;
+the foreground color for text under the cursor is taken from the
+background color of the underlying text. On text terminals, the
+appearance of the text cursor is determined by the terminal, not by
+the @code{cursor} face.
+
+ You can also use X resources to specify attributes of any particular
+face. @xref{Resources}.
+
+ Emacs can display variable-width fonts, but some Emacs commands,
+particularly indentation commands, do not account for variable
+character display widths. Therefore, we recommend not using
+variable-width fonts for most faces, particularly those assigned by
+Font Lock mode.
+
+@node Colors
+@section Colors for Faces
+@cindex color name
+@cindex RGB triplet
+
+ Faces can have various foreground and background colors. When you
+specify a color for a face---for instance, when customizing the face
+(@pxref{Face Customization})---you can use either a @dfn{color name}
+or an @dfn{RGB triplet}.
+
+@findex list-colors-display
+@vindex list-colors-sort
+ A color name is a pre-defined name, such as @samp{dark orange} or
+@samp{medium sea green}. To view a list of color names, type @kbd{M-x
+list-colors-display}. To control the order in which colors are shown,
+customize @code{list-colors-sort}. If you run this command on a
+graphical display, it shows the full range of color names known to
+Emacs (these are the standard X11 color names, defined in X's
+@file{rgb.txt} file). If you run the command on a text terminal, it
+shows only a small subset of colors that can be safely displayed on
+such terminals. However, Emacs understands X11 color names even on
+text terminals; if a face is given a color specified by an X11 color
+name, it is displayed using the closest-matching terminal color.
+
+ An RGB triplet is a string of the form @samp{#RRGGBB}. Each of the
+R, G, and B components is a hexadecimal number specifying the
+component's relative intensity, one to four digits long (usually two
+digits are used). The components must have the same number of digits.
+For hexadecimal values A to F, either upper or lower case are
+acceptable.
+
+ The @kbd{M-x list-colors-display} command also shows the equivalent
+RGB triplet for each named color. For instance, @samp{medium sea
+green} is equivalent to @samp{#3CB371}.