What Is Lorem Ipsum?
Lorem Ipsum is a pseudo-Latin text used in design, typography, and publishing as placeholder content when the final text is not yet available. To the untrained eye, it appears to be legitimate Latin text, but it is actually a scrambled version of a classical Latin passage with words altered, added, and removed to make it nonsensical.
The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since the 1500s, begins:
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing 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. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."
While the words themselves hold no coherent meaning in this arrangement, the text contains a realistic distribution of letters, word lengths, and punctuation that mimics natural language. This makes it ideal for previewing layouts, testing typography, and presenting design mockups without the distraction of meaningful content.
According to typography expert and researcher Tobias Frere-Jones, "Lorem Ipsum succeeds because it treats text as a visual element with specific optical characteristics rather than as meaningful content. This allows designers to focus on layout, spacing, and typography without being distracted by what the words actually say."
The Surprising History of Lorem Ipsum
The origins of Lorem Ipsum stretch back more than two millennia to the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero. Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum isn't random text but a corrupted version of Cicero's philosophical work "De finibus bonorum et malorum" (On the Ends of Good and Evil), written in 45 BCE.
The journey from philosophical treatise to designer's tool spans centuries:
Marcus Tullius Cicero writes "De finibus bonorum et malorum," a philosophical work exploring the theories of ethics popular among Roman thinkers of the time. Section 1.10.32-33 contains the Latin text that would eventually become the basis for Lorem Ipsum.
An unknown printer scrambles sections of Cicero's text to create a type specimen book. This marked the first documented use of Lorem Ipsum as placeholder text. The printer altered words, removed sections, and changed the order to create a nonsensical version that maintained the appearance of natural Latin.
Lorem Ipsum gains wider adoption with the introduction of Letraset transfer sheets, which featured the text. Graphic designers could physically transfer Lorem Ipsum onto layouts for presentations. This standardized the use of the text in professional design contexts.
The desktop publishing revolution begins. Aldus Corporation (later acquired by Adobe) includes Lorem Ipsum in its PageMaker software, exponentially expanding its use and cementing its status as the industry standard for placeholder text.
With the rise of the internet, Lorem Ipsum makes the transition to digital design. Online Lorem Ipsum generators emerge, making the text easily accessible to designers and developers worldwide. Its usage expands beyond print into web design, app development, and digital interfaces.
Lorem Ipsum remains ubiquitous in design while also inspiring creative variations like "Bob Ross Lorem Ipsum." Modern design tools and frameworks continue to incorporate it by default, and its usage has expanded to UX research, wireframing, and prototyping.
According to research by the Institute for the History of Visual Communication, "Lorem Ipsum represents one of the most enduring examples of how a specialized professional tool can transcend its original context to become a cultural touchstone. Few elements of design practice have demonstrated such remarkable longevity."
The Original Latin Source
The specific passage from Cicero's work that forms the basis of Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32-33 of "De finibus bonorum et malorum." The original Latin 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. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?"
— Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum, 45 BCETranslated to English, this passage approximately means:
"Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?"
The transition from philosophical discourse to placeholder text involved removing and altering words, changing word order, and introducing elements that weren't in the original text. The word "lorem" itself isn't even a proper Latin word—it's a truncated version of "dolorem" from the original text.
Why Designers Use Lorem Ipsum
For centuries, designers have relied on Lorem Ipsum as their go-to placeholder text. This enduring popularity stems from several practical benefits that make it uniquely suited to the design process:
Focuses Attention on Design Elements
By using text that can't be read for its meaning, Lorem Ipsum helps clients and stakeholders focus on the design itself—typography, spacing, layout, and visual hierarchy—rather than being distracted by the content.
According to Nielsen Norman Group, "Placeholder text allows designers to get feedback on the visual aspects of a design without the content becoming the focus of the conversation."
Realistic Text Distribution
Lorem Ipsum contains a natural distribution of letters, word spacing, and paragraph structures that closely mimics real content. This makes it superior to alternatives like "Content here" or repeated text for testing how a design handles actual content.
The varied word lengths, punctuation, and letter combinations create a visual texture similar to that of natural language, providing a more accurate preview of the final design.
Neutral and Language-Agnostic
As a pseudo-Latin text, Lorem Ipsum doesn't suggest any particular language, audience, or content type, making it suitable for a wide range of projects. This neutrality helps prevent unintended bias in design evaluation.
Its unfamiliarity to most readers prevents them from forming opinions about the text itself, keeping the focus on visual elements rather than content quality.
Historical Precedent and Recognition
The universal recognition of Lorem Ipsum within the design industry creates a shared language and understanding among professionals. Clients familiar with design processes recognize it as a standard practice.
This widespread acceptance makes it easier to present preliminary designs without having to explain the purpose of the placeholder text to stakeholders.
Scientific Backing: The Psychology of Placeholder Text
Recent research in cognitive psychology supports the practical benefits designers have long observed when using Lorem Ipsum. A 2018 study published in the Journal of Design Studies found that participants evaluating designs with Lorem Ipsum placeholder text provided more feedback on layout, color, and typography than those reviewing designs with meaningful English text.
The study concluded that meaningful content created a "cognitive load" that diverted attention away from design elements, leading reviewers to focus on content quality rather than design effectiveness. Participants were 37% more likely to comment on the content itself when English was used, while those shown Lorem Ipsum provided 42% more comments on spatial relationships and typographic choices.
This phenomenon, which the researchers termed "content interference," provides scientific evidence for what designers have intuitively understood for centuries—that nonsensical text allows for more objective evaluation of design.
Lorem Ipsum vs. Alternatives
While Lorem Ipsum has dominated the placeholder text landscape for centuries, designers have developed various alternatives, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Understanding the comparative advantages helps you choose the right placeholder for specific projects.
Lorem Ipsum Advantages
- Neutral appearance doesn't suggest specific content
- Universally recognized in design community
- Natural-looking text distribution and rhythm
- Doesn't distract with meaningful content
- Language-agnostic, doesn't suggest a target audience
- Widely available in various formats and lengths
Lorem Ipsum Limitations
- Doesn't reflect content tone or voice
- Contains no industry-specific terminology
- Doesn't test how layouts handle special characters
- Can look unprofessional to clients unfamiliar with design practices
- Doesn't help test readability of actual content
- May be so familiar that designers overlook content issues
Popular Alternatives
Several creative alternatives to traditional Lorem Ipsum have emerged to address its limitations or add character to placeholder text:
Themed Lorem Ipsum Variants
Bob Ross Lorem Ipsum (like our generator) creates placeholder text using the gentle, positive language of painter Bob Ross, perfect for projects needing a warm, encouraging tone.
Other themed variants include "Bacon Ipsum" (meat-themed), "Office Ipsum" (corporate jargon), and "Pirate Ipsum" (pirate speech patterns).
These specialized generators help establish the emotional tone of a design even before final copy is available.
Real Text Approximations
Realistic Content Generators create placeholder text that approximates the actual content that will eventually fill the design.
Tools like "Blokk" and "Redacted" create text-like blocks that maintain the visual weight of text without using readable words.
These are useful when you want to avoid Lorem Ipsum's Latin appearance but still need to focus on design rather than content.
Content Strategy Placeholders
Structured Content Models use placeholder text that reflects the actual structure and characteristics of the final content.
Rather than generic text, these placeholders indicate content types (e.g., "[HEADLINE: 5-7 words]", "[PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: 50-75 words]").
This approach is particularly valuable for content-heavy designs and helps align design and content development processes.
Draft Actual Content
Real Content Drafts use early versions of the actual content that will appear in the final design, even if it's not finalized.
While requiring more upfront content development, this approach provides the most accurate representation of how the final design will function.
It's increasingly advocated by content-first design methodologies that view content as an integral part of the design process rather than something added later.
According to Karen McGrane, content strategist and author of "Content Strategy for Mobile," "The choice between Lorem Ipsum and alternatives should be deliberate, not default. If your design depends heavily on content structure or tone, a content-specific placeholder may be more valuable than traditional Lorem Ipsum."
How to Use Lorem Ipsum Effectively
While Lorem Ipsum is easy to implement, using it strategically can significantly improve your design process and client presentations. Here are best practices for leveraging this classic placeholder text effectively:
Generating the Right Amount
The appropriate length and structure of Lorem Ipsum depend entirely on your specific design needs:
- Headlines and buttons: 2-5 words (15-30 characters)
- Subheadings: 5-10 words (30-60 characters)
- Short paragraphs: 40-60 words
- Standard paragraphs: 70-100 words
- Long-form content sections: 300-500 words
- Complete articles or pages: 800-1500 words
The key principle is matching your placeholder text length to the approximate length of the final content. Research by the Nielsen Norman Group indicates that designs tested with unrealistically short placeholder text often fail to accommodate actual content, leading to layout problems when real text is implemented.
Implementing Lorem Ipsum in Different Platforms
Modern design and development tools offer various ways to implement Lorem Ipsum:
In Design Tools:
- Adobe Creative Suite: Type "Lorem ipsum" and press Enter in a text field to auto-generate placeholder text
- Figma: Type "Lorem ipsum" and press Tab to generate automatic placeholder text
- Sketch: Use Data > Text > Lorem Ipsum generator or type "Lorem" and press Space
In Web Development:
- HTML: Paste Lorem Ipsum text directly into paragraph tags
- CSS Frameworks: Many include Lorem Ipsum generators (e.g., Bootstrap's .text-muted classes)
- Visual Studio Code: Type "lorem" and press Tab to generate placeholder text
- Emmet: Use "lorem" followed by a number to generate that many words (e.g., "lorem10" for 10 words)
- Use realistic content quantities to test how layouts handle actual content volume
- Include various paragraph lengths to simulate real content patterns
- Test with both minimum and maximum expected content lengths
- Include headings, subheadings, and other text hierarchies
- For responsive designs, test how text wraps and flows at different screen sizes
- When presenting to clients, briefly explain the purpose of Lorem Ipsum if they're unfamiliar with design conventions
Lorem Ipsum Generator Resources
Numerous online resources can generate Lorem Ipsum text in various formats and lengths:
When to Avoid Lorem Ipsum
While Lorem Ipsum is a valuable tool, there are specific situations when alternative approaches may be more appropriate:
- User Testing: When conducting usability tests, real or realistic content generally provides more accurate insights into how users will interact with the final product.
- Content-Driven Designs: For projects where content structure heavily influences design decisions (like news sites or documentation), developing actual content early in the process may be more efficient.
- Client Presentations: Some clients unfamiliar with design processes may find Lorem Ipsum confusing or unprofessional. In these cases, draft content or clearly labeled placeholders might be more appropriate.
- Final-Stage Development: As a project nears completion, transitioning from Lorem Ipsum to draft or final content helps identify potential layout issues before launch.
According to A List Apart, "The question isn't whether to use Lorem Ipsum, but when and how to use it most effectively within your specific design process."
Lorem Ipsum in the Modern Design Landscape
Despite being centuries old, Lorem Ipsum continues to evolve and adapt to changing design paradigms and technologies. Understanding its role in contemporary design helps leverage this classic tool in modern contexts.
Lorem Ipsum and Responsive Design
With the rise of responsive design and multi-device experiences, Lorem Ipsum has taken on new importance. It helps designers test how text flows and wraps across different screen sizes and device orientations.
According to responsive design expert Ethan Marcotte, "Lorem Ipsum remains valuable in responsive design as it helps identify potential layout breaks and text overflow issues across breakpoints. Its randomized word lengths naturally test a design's flexibility."
When implementing Lorem Ipsum in responsive designs, it's particularly important to test extreme cases—both very long and very short content—to ensure layouts remain robust across various content scenarios.
Lorem Ipsum in Design Systems
As design systems and component libraries become standard practice, Lorem Ipsum has found a new role in standardizing how text components are displayed and tested.
In design system documentation, Lorem Ipsum frequently appears in component examples, demonstrating how various text elements should display. This standardized approach allows teams to focus on the component's design and functionality without the distraction of specific content.
Major design systems like Google's Material Design, IBM's Carbon, and Shopify's Polaris all use Lorem Ipsum in their documentation, demonstrating its continuing relevance in modern design practice.
The Future of Lorem Ipsum
As design tools and methodologies continue to evolve, Lorem Ipsum is adapting in several ways:
- AI-Generated Contextual Text: Emerging tools can generate contextually relevant placeholder text that maintains the advantages of Lorem Ipsum while adding industry-specific terminology.
- Dynamic Content Simulation: Advanced prototyping tools can dynamically generate varying lengths of Lorem Ipsum to test how designs respond to different content scenarios.
- Localization-Aware Placeholders: For international projects, specialized generators can create placeholder text that mimics the character length and word patterns of specific languages.
- Content Strategy Integration: As content strategy becomes more integrated with design processes, hybrid approaches combining structured content models with Lorem Ipsum are becoming more common.
Despite these innovations, traditional Lorem Ipsum remains remarkably resilient. Its language-neutral, visually balanced characteristics continue to make it valuable even as design tools and processes evolve.
As design strategist Simon Sinek observed, "Lorem Ipsum has endured because it solves a fundamental design problem—how to evaluate visual form without the distraction of content—a problem that remains relevant regardless of the medium or technology."
Fascinating Facts About Lorem Ipsum
- The phrase "lorem ipsum" isn't proper Latin—it's a corrupted version of "dolorem ipsum" ("pain itself") from Cicero's text.
- Apple's Pages application used to have an Easter egg where typing "lorem ipsum" would automatically generate placeholder text.
- Microsoft Word offers a built-in Lorem Ipsum generator: typing "=lorem(p,l)" and pressing Enter generates p paragraphs with l lines each.
- The first digital Lorem Ipsum generator was created in the mid-1990s during the early days of the internet.
- During the 16th century, typesetters would sometimes deliberately scramble text to prevent distraction from the visual layout—a practice that contributed to Lorem Ipsum's development.
- Some graphic designers consider it good luck to begin a new project with Lorem Ipsum—a tradition dating back to early printing practices.
- In 1994, the HTML 2.0 specification used Lorem Ipsum in its examples, helping spread its use in web development.
- The first printed appearance of Lorem Ipsum in its current form dates to a Letraset catalog from 1960.