Q3.10.3: Can I turn off the highlight during isearch?

I do not like my text highlighted while I am doing isearch as I am not able to see what’s underneath. How do I turn it off?

Put the following in your init.el:

(setq isearch-highlight nil)

You can also change this with Customize. Type M-x customize-variable RET isearch-highlight RET.

Note also that isearch-highlight affects query-replace and ispell. Instead of disabling isearch-highlight you may find that a better solution consists of customizing the isearch face.