RE: set the highlight color when searching

[Drew Adams]

> > when searching for text the actual highlighted text in 
> > emacs 23.3 in ubuntu 12.04 is lightblue with pink background
> > - a horrible combination, I often can't read it. How can I
> > change lightblue to e.g. white?
> 
> Customize the face 'isearch'.

How to find this yourself:

M-x customize-apropos-faces RET isearch RET

You will see these matches:

Isearch face: (sample) [Show Face]
   State: HIDDEN, invoke "Show" in the previous line to show.
   Face for highlighting Isearch matches.

Isearch Fail face: (sample) [Show Face]
   State: HIDDEN, invoke "Show" in the previous line to show.
   Face for highlighting failed part in Isearch echo-area message.

Isearch Lazy Highlight Face:(sample) [Show Face]
   State: HIDDEN, invoke "Show" in the previous line to show.
   isearch-lazy-highlight-face is an alias for the face `lazy-highlight'. [More]

You can customize any of these from the same buffer (it is a Customize buffer).
Start by clicking `[Show Face]' (or the small triangle in Emacs 24+).

If you generally use the default Emacs settings, and you think the default
appearance for face `isearch' should be changed, file an enhancement request for
that using `M-x report-emacs-bug'.