How to make Emacs modline in color?

Question

I've seen number of times emacs screenshots where modline is in color like this one:

How can I do this in emacs?

Answer 1

You can try packages like powerline, smart-mode-line which do lot of customization to mode line and has some inbuilt themes.

You can get various themes from airline-themes

Here is a screenshot of powerline theme

Answer 2

See the Elisp manual, node Properties in Mode.

Mode-line constructs can be complex - or simple. At their simplest they are strings. And you can propertize strings, i.e., give them text properties, including properties such as face that provide visual effects such as foreground and background color.