Design Resources: Lorem Ipsum

By Jennifer | May 25 2006 |

If you need some dummy copy (text) to slot into your designs while you are working on them, then use the classic Lorem Ipsum text that has been used by the printing and typesetting industry since the 1500s. Below you will find a “chunk” of Lorem Ipsum text:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.

Although the text appears to be random latin gobbledegook, it is actually over 2000 years old and has its roots in a piece of literature from 45 BC - “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil).

OK, so that’s all very interesting, but why is it helpful when designing?
Well, a person viewing a design or layout will be distracted by readable content and may miss out on elements of the design. Another reason for using ‘lorem ipsum’ is that it also has a fairly normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘This is dummy text, this is dummy text, this is dummy text” making it look like readable text.

So where do you get Lorem Ipsum text? Simply go to http://www.lipsum.com/feed/html.