Author: Chris Noxz <chris@noxz.tech>
note: This patch is meant to be used together with fuzzymatch

diff -upN dmenu-4.9/config.def.h dmenu-4.9-fuzzyhighlight/config.def.h
--- dmenu-4.9/config.def.h	2019-02-02 13:55:02.000000000 +0100
+++ dmenu-4.9-fuzzyhighlight/config.def.h	2020-04-04 10:26:36.990890854 +0200
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ static const char *colors[SchemeLast][2]
 	/*     fg         bg       */
 	[SchemeNorm] = { "#bbbbbb", "#222222" },
 	[SchemeSel] = { "#eeeeee", "#005577" },
+	[SchemeSelHighlight] = { "#ffc978", "#005577" },
+	[SchemeNormHighlight] = { "#ffc978", "#222222" },
 	[SchemeOut] = { "#000000", "#00ffff" },
 };
 /* -l option; if nonzero, dmenu uses vertical list with given number of lines */
diff -upN dmenu-4.9/dmenu.1 dmenu-4.9-fuzzyhighlight/dmenu.1
--- dmenu-4.9/dmenu.1	2019-02-02 13:55:02.000000000 +0100
+++ dmenu-4.9-fuzzyhighlight/dmenu.1	2020-04-04 10:30:16.430054933 +0200
@@ -20,6 +20,14 @@ dmenu \- dynamic menu
 .IR color ]
 .RB [ \-sf
 .IR color ]
+.RB [ \-nhb
+.IR color ]
+.RB [ \-nhf
+.IR color ]
+.RB [ \-shb
+.IR color ]
+.RB [ \-shf
+.IR color ]
 .RB [ \-w
 .IR windowid ]
 .P
@@ -75,6 +83,18 @@ defines the selected background color.
 .BI \-sf " color"
 defines the selected foreground color.
 .TP
+.BI \-nhb " color"
+defines the normal highlight background color.
+.TP
+.BI \-nhf " color"
+defines the normal highlight foreground color.
+.TP
+.BI \-shb " color"
+defines the selected highlight background color.
+.TP
+.BI \-shf " color"
+defines the selected highlight foreground color.
+.TP
 .B \-v
 prints version information to stdout, then exits.
 .TP
diff -upN dmenu-4.9/dmenu.c dmenu-4.9-fuzzyhighlight/dmenu.c
--- dmenu-4.9/dmenu.c	2019-02-02 13:55:02.000000000 +0100
+++ dmenu-4.9-fuzzyhighlight/dmenu.c	2020-04-04 10:27:43.888026309 +0200
@@ -26,7 +26,9 @@
 #define TEXTW(X)              (drw_fontset_getwidth(drw, (X)) + lrpad)
 
 /* enums */
-enum { SchemeNorm, SchemeSel, SchemeOut, SchemeLast }; /* color schemes */
+enum { SchemeNorm, SchemeSel, SchemeNormHighlight, SchemeSelHighlight,
+       SchemeOut, SchemeLast }; /* color schemes */
+
 
 struct item {
 	char *text;
@@ -113,9 +115,49 @@ cistrstr(const char *s, const char *sub)
 	return NULL;
 }
 
+static void
+drawhighlights(struct item *item, int x, int y, int maxw)
+{
+	int i, indent;
+	char *highlight;
+	char c;
+
+	if (!(strlen(item->text) && strlen(text)))
+		return;
+
+	drw_setscheme(drw, scheme[item == sel
+	                   ? SchemeSelHighlight
+	                   : SchemeNormHighlight]);
+	for (i = 0, highlight = item->text; *highlight && text[i];) {
+		if (*highlight == text[i]) {
+			/* get indentation */
+			c = *highlight;
+			*highlight = '\0';
+			indent = TEXTW(item->text);
+			*highlight = c;
+
+			/* highlight character */
+			c = highlight[1];
+			highlight[1] = '\0';
+			drw_text(
+				drw,
+				x + indent - (lrpad / 2),
+				y,
+				MIN(maxw - indent, TEXTW(highlight) - lrpad),
+				bh, 0, highlight, 0
+			);
+			highlight[1] = c;
+			i++;
+		}
+		highlight++;
+	}
+}
+
+
 static int
 drawitem(struct item *item, int x, int y, int w)
 {
+	int r;
 	if (item == sel)
 		drw_setscheme(drw, scheme[SchemeSel]);
 	else if (item->out)
@@ -123,7 +165,9 @@ drawitem(struct item *item, int x, int y
 	else
 		drw_setscheme(drw, scheme[SchemeNorm]);
 
-	return drw_text(drw, x, y, w, bh, lrpad / 2, item->text, 0);
+	r = drw_text(drw, x, y, w, bh, lrpad / 2, item->text, 0);
+	drawhighlights(item, x, y, w);
+	return r;
 }
 
 static void
@@ -683,7 +727,8 @@ static void
 usage(void)
 {
 	fputs("usage: dmenu [-bfiv] [-l lines] [-p prompt] [-fn font] [-m monitor]\n"
-	      "             [-nb color] [-nf color] [-sb color] [-sf color] [-w windowid]\n", stderr);
+	      "             [-nb color] [-nf color] [-sb color] [-sf color]\n"
+	      "             [-nhb color] [-nhf color] [-shb color] [-shf color] [-w windowid]\n", stderr);
 	exit(1);
 }
 
@@ -724,6 +769,14 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 			colors[SchemeSel][ColBg] = argv[++i];
 		else if (!strcmp(argv[i], "-sf"))  /* selected foreground color */
 			colors[SchemeSel][ColFg] = argv[++i];
+		else if (!strcmp(argv[i], "-nhb")) /* normal hi background color */
+			colors[SchemeNormHighlight][ColBg] = argv[++i];
+		else if (!strcmp(argv[i], "-nhf")) /* normal hi foreground color */
+			colors[SchemeNormHighlight][ColFg] = argv[++i];
+		else if (!strcmp(argv[i], "-shb")) /* selected hi background color */
+			colors[SchemeSelHighlight][ColBg] = argv[++i];
+		else if (!strcmp(argv[i], "-shf")) /* selected hi foreground color */
+			colors[SchemeSelHighlight][ColFg] = argv[++i];
 		else if (!strcmp(argv[i], "-w"))   /* embedding window id */
 			embed = argv[++i];
 		else
