Lorem Ipsum

14th January, 2011

If youve ever created a template of a document or had one created for you, then you may have come across some foreign text known in the printing and typesetting industry as Lorem Ipsum.

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem Ipsum is dummy text inserted to fill the space and illustrate how the finished document will look once the text has been finalised. It has been used for this purpose since the 1500s and continues to be widely used today by designers and developers across the world.

It has roots which date back to a passage of classic Latin literature that is over 2000 years old. The piece, written by Cicero in 45 BC is an extract from a book on the theory of ethics.

Why use Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem Ipsum is a passage of text which appears to have a normal distribution of letters, making it easier for the reader to get a feel for the layout of a page. Rather than just inserting text to be supplied or text to go here repeatedly onto a blank page, using Lorem Ipsum generates a more realistic layout and appearance to the design, allowing the author/designer to see the how the finished document will look.

What does it mean?

The most commonly used bit of Lorem Ipsum is as follows:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

This was translated by H. Rackham in 1914 to mean:

But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness.

Where have you seen it before?

It is very likely you have seen extracts of Lorem Ipsum before, possibly without even realizing. Many websites which are still being developed often feature passages of it. Or maybe youve seen it on a poster or advert where it has accidentally been left in! For example, a poster for Mflow where the terms and conditions are still made up of Lorem Ipsum text. Or an advert for Globe where the text hasnt been replaced before going to print.

For further information or to create your own bit of Lorem Ipsum text please go to: http://www.lipsum.com/