The phrase “Lorem Ipsum” is a text that the Desktop Publishing (DTP) industry uses as a placeholder especially when the actual text is not available. Take for instance a brochure publisher, if they need to view the desired template without the real content, then the Lorem Ipsum can be used to fill all the text areas as if the actual content was used. This allows designers to visualize their designs without the need of factual content. Also, clients can use it to either approve or deny the design.
Basically, Lorem Ipsum is nothing but jumbled Latin words which translates to nothing meaningful in either English or any other language.
Although Lorem Ipsum sounds like a meaningful text, the truth is that, it does not have any meaning even in Latin itself. For this reason, the Lorem Ipsum has many other names including dummy text, filler text, blind text, mock text, placeholder text, and sometimes greeked text. However, there have been variations of the phrase since its use in publications starting in early 1960’s.
Most people keep asking themselves why Lorem Ipsum is used instead of real English text. The most obvious reason is that designers realized that when it comes to judging a certain design, focusing on the appearance is more important than understanding the idea. So, actual purpose for Lorem Ipsum boils down to focus. That is, it’s always a proven fact that if someone looks at a design with a real copy, they would easily get distracted as they would try to focus on what the text means instead of the design.
Lorem Ipsum is a modification of Cicero’s “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” section 1.10.32 and the subsequent section 1.10.33 which was written in the year 45 BC. Since 1500, Lorem Ipsum has been used by many designers but its popularity took a center stage in the 1960’s. Initially, desktop publishing software such as Aldus PageMaker transformed the use of the phrase into the digital world. Nowadays, most web design templates utilize Lorem Ipsum to visualize its design elements.
From 1970’s the Letraset dry-transfer sheets popularized the use of Lorem Ipsum and became a standard in publications and web designs. In web design such as WordPress, developers use Lorem Ipsum in designing its themes. Modern publication software also use Lorem Ipsum to show a visual presentation of the publication before the actual content is placed..
There are several software for generating Lorem Ipsum text that can be found online. These tools can allow you to specify the amount of Lorem Ipsum text that fits your design specifications. We have a lorem ipsum generator here on our website - please try it out.
Lorem Ipsum is essentially a filler phrase that has neither a contextual nor literal meaning. However, its use in modern design is very important without which designers could find it time consuming while designing. If you need to use Lorem Ipsum (for either publication or web design), you can make use of various online open source tools or generators. Note that most designers have a tendency of forgetting to replace the Lorem Ipsum text during the final design because the actual presentation would look exactly like the Lorem Ipsum design.