The problem is that the usual Emacs init file
(~/.emacs
or ~/.emacs.d/init.el
) is read after the GUI is initialized, so it has no effect on reverse video. You have to stick with the command line option --reverse-video
or -rv
or -r
.
However, Emacs 28.1 (not yet released) adds an early init file ‘~/.emacs.d/early-init.el
which is loaded before GUI is initialized, and if you put
(add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(reverse . t))
(setq initial-frame-alist default-frame-alist)
into it, your Emacs will start with reverse video.