Blackout is a package which allows you to hide or customize the display of major and minor modes in the mode line. It can replace diminish.el, delight.el, and dim.el. Hide a minor mode: (blackout 'auto-fill-mode) Change the display of a minor mode (note the leading space; this is needed if you want there to be a space between this mode lighter and the previous one): (blackout 'auto-fill-mode " Auto-Fill") Change the display of a major mode: (blackout 'emacs-lisp-mode "Elisp") Operate on a mode which hasn't yet been loaded: (with-eval-after-load 'ivy (blackout 'ivy-mode)) Usage with use-package: (use-package foo :blackout t) (use-package foo :blackout " Foo") (use-package quux :blackout ((foo-mode . " Foo") (bar-mode . " Bar"))) Please see https://github.com/raxod502/blackout for more information.