@PoP: The extra padding is just that, extra padding, it's another bit of code than the font rendering one, so it's simply using the set fg/bg pen colors (i.e., it's not honoring is_overlay at all).
That's mostly a byproduct of the fact that I need is_overlay enabled during font rendering for progress bar, but not during the rendering of the progress bar themselves (which happens to be using the same rectangle filling function as the padding
).