I want my theme to look like similar to below (code got from: http://emacswiki.org/emacs/TomRauchenwald)
theme http://sec.modprobe.de/oxy-gnus-threads.png
However I get this, i.e my threads dont join each other. I suspect this is due to text padding or something?
It looks like a font problem. The code you found is using a special character named BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY VERTICAL
. It looks like a pipe (|
) but is slightly longer and bolder. When your font does not have that character it has a substitution rule telling it to use the pipe.
Since the pipe is a little shorter you get this gap. You should be able to fix this by using a different font.
I think that using the graphical version of emacs also helps as it can use multiple fonts. It will use your favorite font and complement it with another font when it cannot find the character.