This will become possible with the --pretty=format:%S token supported in the upcoming Git 2.21.0.

Considering the git log manual page mentions:

--pretty[=<format>]
--format[=<format>]

Pretty-print the contents of the commit logs in a given format, where can be one of oneline, short, medium, full, fuller, email, raw and format:. When omitted, the format defaults to medium.

the <format> can only have predefined values.
That only leaves you the possibility to define an alias as a shortcut for that command.

[alias]
        jespers_favourite = log --pretty=format:"%h%x09%an%x09%ad%x09%s"

or

[alias]
        compactlog = log --pretty=format:"%h%x09%an%x09%ad%x09%s"

Rokit adds in the comments:

Escaping the quotes worked until I tried adding custom colors.
For that, I also had to add an additional set of regular quotes around the escaped ones, e.g.

log --pretty=format:"\"%C(#9be3bc) %s\""

Im using this script (as alias):

https://github.com/vheon/home/blob/master/.githelpers

git alias:

l = "!bash -c 'source ~/.githelpers && pretty_git_log'"

the output is this:

You will have to use your own git log --pretty=format options.

In the --pretty you can set colors and choose any content you would like to display

format:<string>

The format: format allows you to specify which information you want to show. It works a little bit like printf format, with the notable exception that you get a newline with %n instead of \n.

E.g, format:The author of %h was %an, %ar%nThe title was >>%s<<%n would show something like this:

The author of fe6e0ee was Junio C Hamano, 23 hours ago
The title was >>t4119: test autocomputing -p<n> for traditional diff input.<<

The placeholders are:

%C(…): color specification, as described in color.branch.* config option; adding auto, at the beginning will emit color only when colors are enabled for log output (by color.diff, color.ui, or --color, and respecting the auto settings of the former if we are going to a terminal). auto alone (i.e. %C(auto)) will turn on auto coloring on the next placeholders until the color is switched again.

%C(…): color specification, as described in color.branch.* config option; adding auto, at the beginning will emit color only when colors are enabled for log output (by color.diff, color.ui, or --color, and respecting the auto settings of the former if we are going to a terminal). auto alone (i.e. %C(auto)) will turn on auto coloring on the next placeholders until the color is switched again.

%Cblue: switch color to blue
%Cgreen: switch color to green
%Cred: switch color to red
%Creset: reset color
%D: ref names without the " (", ")" wrapping.
%G?: show "G" for a Good signature, "B" for a Bad signature, "U" for a good, untrusted signature and "N" for no signature
%GG: raw verification message from GPG for a signed commit
%GK: show the key used to sign a signed commit
%GS: show the name of the signer for a signed commit
%H: commit hash
%N: commit notes
%P: parent hashes
%T: tree hash
%aD: author date, RFC2822 style
%aE: author email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
%aI: author date, strict ISO 8601 format
%aN: author name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
%ad: author date (format respects --date= option)
%ae: author email
%ai: author date, ISO 8601-like format
%an: author name
%ar: author date, relative
%at: author date, UNIX timestamp
%b: body
%cD: committer date, RFC2822 style
%cE: committer email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
%cI: committer date, strict ISO 8601 format
%cN: committer name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
%cd: committer date (format respects --date= option)
%ce: committer email
%ci: committer date, ISO 8601-like format
%cn: committer name
%cr: committer date, relative
%ct: committer date, UNIX timestamp
%d: ref names, like the --decorate option of git-log(1)
%e: encoding
%f: sanitized subject line, suitable for a filename
%gD: reflog selector, e.g., refs/stash@{1}
%gE: reflog identity email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
%gN: reflog identity name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
%gd: shortened reflog selector, e.g., stash@{1}
%ge: reflog identity email
%gn: reflog identity name
%gs: reflog subject
%h: abbreviated commit hash
%m: left, right or boundary mark
%n: newline
%p: abbreviated parent hashes
%s: subject
%t: abbreviated tree hash
%w([<w>[,<i1>[,<i2>]]]): switch line wrapping, like the -w option of git-shortlog(1).
%x00: print a byte from a hex code

I use these two .gitconfig file settings:

[log]
  date = relative
[format]
  pretty = format:%h %Cblue%ad%Creset %ae %Cgreen%s%Creset

%ad is the author date, which can be overridden by --date or the option specified in the [log] stanza in .gitconfig. I like the relative date, because it gives an immediate feeling of when stuff was committed. The output looks like this:

6c3e1a2 2 hours ago [email protected] lsof is a dependency now.
0754f18 11 hours ago [email protected] Properly unmount, so detaching works.
336a3ac 13 hours ago [email protected] Show ami registration command if auto register fails
be2ad45 17 hours ago [email protected] Fixes #6. Sao Paolo region is included as well.
5aed68e 17 hours ago [email protected] Shorten while loops

This is all of course in color, so it is easy to distinguish the various parts of a log line. Also it is the default when typing git log because of the [format] section.

Since Git now supports padding, I have a nice amendment to the version above:

pretty = format:%C(yellow)%h %Cblue%>(12)%ad %Cgreen%<(7)%aN%Cred%d %Creset%s

This right aligns the relative dates and left aligns committer names, meaning you get a column-like look that is easy on the eyes.

Screenshot

Since GPG commit signing is becoming a thing, here is a version that includes signature verification (in the screenshot it's the magenta letter right after the commit). A short explanation of the flag:

%G?: show "G" for a good (valid) signature, "B" for a bad signature, "U" for a good signature with unknown validity and "N" for no signature

Other changes include:

• colors are now removed if the output is to something other than the tty (which is useful for grepping, etc.)
• git log -g now contains the reflog selector.
• Save two parentheses on refnames and put them at the end (to preserve column alignment)
• Truncate relative dates if they are too long (e.g., 3 years, 4..)
• Truncate committer names (it might be a little short for some people, but just change the %<(7,trunc) or check out the Git .mailmap feature to shorten committer names)

Here's the configuration:

pretty = format:%C(auto,yellow)%h%C(auto,magenta)% G? %C(auto,blue)%>(12,trunc)%ad %C(auto,green)%<(7,trunc)%aN%C(auto,reset)%s%C(auto,red)% gD% D

All in all column alignment is now preserved a lot better at the expense of some (hopefully) useless characters.

I'd love to make the message color depend on whether a commit is signed, but it doesn't seem like that is possible at the moment.

Screenshot