Understanding and Generating Lorem Ipsum Text
Placeholder Dummy Text Made From Modified Latin Quotations
Jul 4, 2009
Lorem Ipsum is a standard filler or dummy text used by printers and typographers. Inserting dummy text allows pages to be designed before finished copy is available, or it can be used to showcase fonts. The technique is even used in Hollywood, to quickly make fake text in prop newspapers.
The familiar Lorem Ipsum text has been used since the beginning of modern printing in the 1500s. While the 1960s Letraset sheets that once popularized Lorem Ipsum text are long gone, Lorem Ipsum has been used more recently in computer programs such as Aldus Pagemaker, Microsoft Word, and Apple's iWeb.
The Meaning of Lorem Ipsum Text
Lorem Ipsum is named for the first two words of the most common version of dummy text:
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. ..."
The ultimate source of Lorem Ipsum was a mystery for years. Some phrases are recognizably Latin, but many words ("lorem," "adipiscing," "eiusmod") are clearly corrupted. While the text is meaningless, it is not complete gibberish.
It was only in 1994, after a reader of Before & After, a desktop publishing magazine, wrote in asking what the text meant, that a solution was found by Latinist Richard McClintock. He was able to track down Cicero's Latin treatise De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum ("The Extremes of Good and Evil") as the source. A section of Book 1, Chapter 10 reads:
Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.
This translates as "Moreover, there is no man who loves, pursues, or wishes to obtain pain itself, simply because it is pain; instead, he does so because circumstances often occur in which, by means of toil and pain, he seeks some great pleasure."
Making a Lorem Ipsum-style Text
Since Lorem Ipsum has become so common, it can be conspicuous – precisely what a block of text used for illustrative purposes is not meant to do. There are Lorem Ipsum generators available online, though even the best use Cicero's text as a starting point. Other Lorem Ipsum generators or samples may have jokes or other unprofessional – even embarrassing – content hidden in the text.
However, making Lorem Ipsum can be very easy for a graphic designer or typesetter. Latin texts remain a good starting point, as the Roman alphabet is the source of the English one. But few can read the dead language easily, and, of course, all classical Latin texts are free to use and are readily available online.
A Lorem Ipsum Sample
Here, for instance, is an excerpt from Chapter 8 of Tacitus' Germania:
Memoriae proditur, quasdam acies, inclinatas iam et labantes, a feminis restitutas, constantia precum et objectu pectorum et monstrata cominus captivitate, quam longe impatientius feminarum suarum nomine timent: adeo ut efficacius obligentur animi civitatum, quibus inter obsides puellae quoque nobiles imperantur.
Making a few changes in punctuation, and replacing or deleting a few letters, it is easy to create an original text that simulates English typesetting, but is totally meaningless:
"Memoriae proditurn asdam acies, inclinatas jam etlabantes. A feminis restituta, constang precumet object pectorum et monstratal cominus captivitate. Vam longe impat enting us feminarum suar nomine timent; a deo it efficacius obligentur animing. Guibus inter obsides puell nobiles imperanter."
Lorem Ipsum Text and Modern Technology
This procedure can be used to make countless Lorem Ipsum-style blocks of text. It's remarkable that a technique from the dawn of printing is still common in the twenty-first century. Lorem Ipsum has thrived, being much easier to create and use in word processing and desktop publishing software.
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