diff --git a/src/tui/fonts.zig b/src/tui/fonts.zig
index c19685e..35ef2d6 100644
--- a/src/tui/fonts.zig
+++ b/src/tui/fonts.zig
@@ -242,6 +242,12 @@ pub fn get_digit(n: anytype, style_: DigitStyle) []const u8 {
     };
 }
 
+pub fn get_digit_ascii(char: []const u8, style_: DigitStyle) []const u8 {
+    if (char.len == 0) return " ";
+    if (char[0] > '9' or char[0] < '0') return char;
+    return get_digit(char[0] - '0', style_);
+}
+
 const digits_ascii: [10][]const u8 = .{ "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9" };
 const digits_digtl: [10][]const u8 = .{ "🯰", "🯱", "🯲", "🯳", "🯴", "🯵", "🯶", "🯷", "🯸", "🯹" };
 const digits_subsc: [10][]const u8 = .{ "₀", "₁", "₂", "₃", "₄", "₅", "₆", "₇", "₈", "₉" };
diff --git a/src/tui/status/blank.zig b/src/tui/status/blank.zig
index f4bb74f..8901fd0 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/blank.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/blank.zig
@@ -13,11 +13,17 @@ const Self = @This();
 
 pub fn Create(comptime layout_: Widget.Layout) @import("widget.zig").CreateFunction {
     return struct {
-        fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+        fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, arg: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+            const layout__ = if (layout_ == .static) blk: {
+                if (arg) |str_size| {
+                    const size = std.fmt.parseInt(usize, str_size, 10) catch break :blk layout_;
+                    break :blk Widget.Layout{ .static = size };
+                } else break :blk layout_;
+            } else layout_;
             const self: *Self = try allocator.create(Self);
             self.* = .{
                 .plane = try Plane.init(&(Widget.Box{}).opts(@typeName(Self)), parent),
-                .layout_ = layout_,
+                .layout_ = layout__,
                 .on_event = event_handler,
             };
             return Widget.to(self);
diff --git a/src/tui/status/clock.zig b/src/tui/status/clock.zig
index f1d6d38..1945bca 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/clock.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/clock.zig
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ tz: zeit.timezone.TimeZone,
 
 const Self = @This();
 
-pub fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
     var env = std.process.getEnvMap(allocator) catch |e| {
         std.log.err("clock: std.process.getEnvMap failed with {any}", .{e});
         return error.WidgetInitFailed;
diff --git a/src/tui/status/diagstate.zig b/src/tui/status/diagstate.zig
index 8a7f057..5ddb304 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/diagstate.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/diagstate.zig
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ rendered: [:0]const u8 = "",
 
 const Self = @This();
 
-pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
     return Button.create_widget(Self, allocator, parent, .{
         .ctx = .{},
         .label = "",
diff --git a/src/tui/status/filestate.zig b/src/tui/status/filestate.zig
index 1681f36..9ecc932 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/filestate.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/filestate.zig
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ utf8_sanitized: bool = false,
 const project_icon = "";
 const Self = @This();
 
-pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
     const btn = try Button.create(Self, allocator, parent, .{
         .ctx = .{
             .allocator = allocator,
diff --git a/src/tui/status/keybindstate.zig b/src/tui/status/keybindstate.zig
index ebf013a..1c2feee 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/keybindstate.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/keybindstate.zig
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ plane: Plane,
 
 const Self = @This();
 
-pub fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, _: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, _: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
     const self: *Self = try allocator.create(Self);
     self.* = .{
         .allocator = allocator,
diff --git a/src/tui/status/keystate.zig b/src/tui/status/keystate.zig
index 56b818f..ca674a8 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/keystate.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/keystate.zig
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ const Self = @This();
 const idle_msg = "🐶";
 pub const width = idle_msg.len + 20;
 
-pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, _: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, _: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
     const frame_rate = tp.env.get().num("frame-rate");
     const self: *Self = try allocator.create(Self);
     self.* = .{
diff --git a/src/tui/status/linenumstate.zig b/src/tui/status/linenumstate.zig
index 3d1c11a..b545e8e 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/linenumstate.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/linenumstate.zig
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@ const EventHandler = @import("EventHandler");
 
 const Widget = @import("../Widget.zig");
 const Button = @import("../Button.zig");
+const fonts = @import("../fonts.zig");
+
+const DigitStyle = fonts.DigitStyle;
 
 const utf8_sanitized_warning = "  UTF";
 
@@ -19,12 +22,32 @@ buf: [256]u8 = undefined,
 rendered: [:0]const u8 = "",
 eol_mode: Buffer.EolMode = .lf,
 utf8_sanitized: bool = false,
+padding: ?usize,
+leader: ?Leader,
+style: ?DigitStyle,
 
+const Leader = enum {
+    space,
+    zero,
+};
 const Self = @This();
 
-pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, arg: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+    const padding: ?usize, const leader: ?Leader, const style: ?DigitStyle = if (arg) |fmt| blk: {
+        var it = std.mem.splitScalar(u8, fmt, ',');
+        break :blk .{
+            if (it.next()) |size| std.fmt.parseInt(usize, size, 10) catch null else null,
+            if (it.next()) |leader| std.meta.stringToEnum(Leader, leader) orelse null else null,
+            if (it.next()) |style| std.meta.stringToEnum(DigitStyle, style) orelse null else null,
+        };
+    } else .{ null, null, null };
+
     return Button.create_widget(Self, allocator, parent, .{
-        .ctx = .{},
+        .ctx = .{
+            .padding = padding,
+            .leader = leader,
+            .style = style,
+        },
         .label = "",
         .on_click = on_click,
         .on_layout = layout,
@@ -67,11 +90,30 @@ fn format(self: *Self) void {
         .lf => "",
         .crlf => " [␍␊]",
     };
-    std.fmt.format(writer, "{s} Ln {d}, Col {d} ", .{ eol_mode, self.line + 1, self.column + 1 }) catch {};
+    std.fmt.format(writer, "{s} Ln ", .{eol_mode}) catch {};
+    self.format_count(writer, self.line + 1, self.padding orelse 0) catch {};
+    std.fmt.format(writer, ", Col ", .{}) catch {};
+    self.format_count(writer, self.column + 1, self.padding orelse 0) catch {};
+    std.fmt.format(writer, " ", .{}) catch {};
     self.rendered = @ptrCast(fbs.getWritten());
     self.buf[self.rendered.len] = 0;
 }
 
+fn format_count(self: *Self, writer: anytype, value: usize, width: usize) !void {
+    var buf: [64]u8 = undefined;
+    var fbs = std.io.fixedBufferStream(&buf);
+    const writer_ = fbs.writer();
+    try std.fmt.format(writer_, "{d}", .{value});
+    const value_str = fbs.getWritten();
+
+    const char: []const u8 = switch (self.leader orelse .space) {
+        .space => " ",
+        .zero => "0",
+    };
+    for (0..(@max(value_str.len, width) - value_str.len)) |_| try writer.writeAll(fonts.get_digit_ascii(char, self.style orelse .ascii));
+    for (value_str, 0..) |_, i| try writer.writeAll(fonts.get_digit_ascii(value_str[i .. i + 1], self.style orelse .ascii));
+}
+
 pub fn receive(self: *Self, _: *Button.State(Self), _: tp.pid_ref, m: tp.message) error{Exit}!bool {
     var eol_mode: Buffer.EolModeTag = @intFromEnum(Buffer.EolMode.lf);
     if (try m.match(.{ "E", "pos", tp.extract(&self.lines), tp.extract(&self.line), tp.extract(&self.column) })) {
diff --git a/src/tui/status/minilog.zig b/src/tui/status/minilog.zig
index 676103c..a2644fb 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/minilog.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/minilog.zig
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ const Level = enum {
     err,
 };
 
-pub fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
     const self: *Self = try allocator.create(Self);
     self.* = .{
         .plane = try Plane.init(&(Widget.Box{}).opts(@typeName(Self)), parent),
diff --git a/src/tui/status/modestate.zig b/src/tui/status/modestate.zig
index 4529c31..16ab14d 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/modestate.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/modestate.zig
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ const Button = @import("../Button.zig");
 const tui = @import("../tui.zig");
 const CreateError = @import("widget.zig").CreateError;
 
-pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) CreateError!Widget {
     return Button.create_widget(void, allocator, parent, .{
         .ctx = {},
         .label = tui.get_mode(),
diff --git a/src/tui/status/modstate.zig b/src/tui/status/modstate.zig
index 351a373..4555cef 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/modstate.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/modstate.zig
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ const Self = @This();
 
 pub const width = 8;
 
-pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, _: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, _: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
     const self: *Self = try allocator.create(Self);
     self.* = .{
         .plane = try Plane.init(&(Widget.Box{}).opts(@typeName(Self)), parent),
diff --git a/src/tui/status/selectionstate.zig b/src/tui/status/selectionstate.zig
index 8ac3d99..f606a5c 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/selectionstate.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/selectionstate.zig
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ on_event: ?EventHandler,
 
 const Self = @This();
 
-pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
     const self: *Self = try allocator.create(Self);
     self.* = .{
         .plane = try Plane.init(&(Widget.Box{}).opts(@typeName(Self)), parent),
diff --git a/src/tui/status/tabs.zig b/src/tui/status/tabs.zig
index d3a77c8..dbf5bf6 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/tabs.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/tabs.zig
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ const @"style.config" = struct {
 };
 pub const Style = @"style.config";
 
-pub fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
+pub fn create(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, _: ?[]const u8) @import("widget.zig").CreateError!Widget {
     const self = try allocator.create(TabBar);
     self.* = try TabBar.init(allocator, parent, event_handler);
     return Widget.to(self);
diff --git a/src/tui/status/widget.zig b/src/tui/status/widget.zig
index 4b87b06..80ebc45 100644
--- a/src/tui/status/widget.zig
+++ b/src/tui/status/widget.zig
@@ -21,16 +21,24 @@ const widgets = std.static_string_map.StaticStringMap(CreateFunction).initCompti
     .{ "tabs", @import("tabs.zig").create },
 });
 pub const CreateError = error{ OutOfMemory, WidgetInitFailed };
-pub const CreateFunction = *const fn (allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) CreateError!Widget;
+pub const CreateFunction = *const fn (allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler, arg: ?[]const u8) CreateError!Widget;
+
+pub fn create(descriptor: []const u8, allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) CreateError!?Widget {
+    var it = std.mem.splitScalar(u8, descriptor, ':');
+    const name = it.next() orelse {
+        const logger = log.logger("statusbar");
+        logger.print_err("config", "bad widget descriptor \"{s}\" (see log)", .{descriptor});
+        return null;
+    };
+    const arg = it.next();
 
-pub fn create(name: []const u8, allocator: std.mem.Allocator, parent: Plane, event_handler: ?EventHandler) CreateError!?Widget {
     const create_ = widgets.get(name) orelse {
         const logger = log.logger("statusbar");
         logger.print_err("config", "unknown widget \"{s}\" (see log)", .{name});
         log_widgets(logger);
         return null;
     };
-    return try create_(allocator, parent, event_handler);
+    return try create_(allocator, parent, event_handler, arg);
 }
 
 fn log_widgets(logger: anytype) void {