The alpha value needs to be initialized as well.
@ -1193,6 +1193,7 @@ xdrawglyphfontspecs(const XftGlyphFontSpec *specs, Glyph base, int len, int x, i
colfg.red = fg->color.red / 2;
colfg.green = fg->color.green / 2;
colfg.blue = fg->color.blue / 2;
colfg.alpha = fg->color.alpha;
XftColorAllocValue(xw.dpy, xw.vis, xw.cmap, &colfg, &revfg);
fg = &revfg;
}