Those mode-line colors are normally controlled by faces mode-line
and mode-line-inactive
.
It looks like smart-mode-line
might want you to use its own function to customize mode-line faces: sml/customize-faces
. It may not respect / make use of the standard faces mode-line
and mode-line-inactive
.
The code of smart-mode-line.el
has this comment:
;; 5. **Very easy to configure**:
;; All colors and variables are customizable. You can change the
;; whole theme with `sml/apply-theme', or just customize anything
;; manually with `sml/customize' and `sml/customize-faces'. There are
;; *DOZENS* of variables to customize your mode-line, just pop over
;; there and have a look!
So try M-x sml/customize-faces
.
And the doc string for Customize group smart-mode-line-faces
says this:
Note that, by default, smart-mode-line
overrides your theme's
settings for the background and foreground color of the modeline
face. We need to override, otherwise some elements become
unreadable on lighter themes. If you'd rather configure these
unreadable colors yourself and keep your theme's settings, just
set sml/override-theme
to nil
.
So try setting sml/override-theme
to nil
, as another alternative.