 Lorem Ipsum: Usage, Common

examples, Translation, Variants and

technical information
 Essay: Lorem Ipsum--when, and when
not to use it


Plugins:
Content management systems (CMS):
Joomla, Wordpress, Magento, Google
Docs, Drupal
 Editors: Notepad++, Sublime Text,
Office suites

Lorem Ipsum: usage

Lorem ipsum is a pseudo-Latin text used in
web design, typography, layout, and printing
in place of English to emphasise design
elements over content. It's also called
placeholder (or filler) text. It's a convenient
tool for mock-ups. It helps to outline the
visual elements of a document or
presentation, eg typography, font, or layout.
Lorem ipsum is mostly a part of a Latin text
by the classical author and philosopher
Cicero. Its words and letters have been
changed by addition or removal, so to
deliberately render its content nonsensical;
it's not genuine, correct, or comprehensible
Latin anymore. While lorem ipsum's still
resembles classical Latin, it actually has no
meaning whatsoever. As Cicero's text
doesn't contain the letters K, W, or Z, alien
to latin, these, and others are often inserted
randomly to mimic the typographic
appearence of European languages, as are
digraphs not to be found in the original.
In a professional context it often happens
that private or corporate clients corder a
publication to be made and presented with
the actual content still not being ready.
Think of a news blog that's filled with
content hourly on the day of going live.
However, reviewers tend to be distracted by
comprehensible content, say, a random text
copied from a newspaper or the internet. The
are likely to focus on the text, disregarding
the layout and its elements. Besides, random
text risks to be unintendedly humorous or
offensive, an unacceptable risk in corporate
environments. Lorem ipsum and its many
variants have been employed since the early
1960ies, and quite likely since the sixteenth
century.

Lorem Ipsum:
common examples
Most of its text is made up from sections
1.10.32–3 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et
malorum (On the Boundaries of Goods and
Evils; finibus may also be translated as
purposes). Neque porro quisquam est qui
dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet,
consectetur, adipisci velit is the first known
version ("Neither is there anyone who loves
grief itself since it is grief and thus wants to
obtain it"). It was found by Richard
McClintock, a philologist, director of
publications at Hampden-Sydney College in
Virginia; he searched for citings of
consectetur in classical Latin literature, a
term of remarkably low frequency in that
literary corpus.
Cicero famously orated against his political
opponent Lucius Sergius Catilina.
Occasionally the first Oration against
Catiline is taken for type specimens: Quo
usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia
nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos
eludet? (How long, O Catiline, will you
abuse our patience? And for how long will
that madness of yours mock us?)
Cicero's version of Liber Primus (first
Book), sections 1.10.32–3 (fragments
included in most Lorem Ipsum variants in
red):
Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus
error sit voluptatem accusantium
doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam
eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et
quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt,
explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem,
quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut
fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores
eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt,
neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem
ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur,
adipisci[ng] velit, sed quia non numquam
[do] eius modi tempora inci[di]dunt, 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?

Lorem Ipsum:
translation
The Latin scholar H. Rackham translated the
above in 1914:
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. No one rejects, dislikes,
or avoids pleasure itself, because it is
pleasure, but because those who do not
know how to pursue pleasure rationally
encounter consequences that are extremely
painful. 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?
On the other hand, we denounce with
righteous indignation and dislike men who
are so beguiled and demoralized by the
charms of pleasure of the moment, so
blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee
the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue;
and equal blame belongs to those who fail in
their duty through weakness of will, which
is the same as saying through shrinking from
toil and pain. These cases are perfectly
simple and easy to distinguish. In a free
hour, when our power of choice is
untrammelled and when nothing prevents
our being able to do what we like best, every
pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain
avoided. But in certain circumstances and
owing to the claims of duty or the
obligations of business it will frequently
occur that pleasures have to be repudiated
and annoyances accepted. The wise man
therefore always holds in these matters to
this principle of selection: he rejects
pleasures to secure other greater pleasures,
or else he endures pains to avoid worse
pains.
Lorem Ipsum:
variants and technical
information
In 1985 Aldus Corporation launched its first
desktop publishing program Aldus
PageMaker for Apple Macintosh computers,
released in 1987 for PCs running Windows
1.0. Both contained the variant lorem ipsum
most common today. Laura Perry, then art
director with Aldus, modified prior versions
of Lorem Ipsum text from typographical
specimens; in the 1960s and 1970s it
appeared often in lettering catalogs by
Letraset. Anecdotal evidence has it that
Letraset used Lorem ipsum already from
1970 onwards, eg. for grids (page layouts)
for ad agencies. Many early desktop
publishing programs, eg. Adobe PageMaker,
used it to create template.
Most text editors like MS Word or Lotus
Notes generate random lorem text when
needed, either as pre-installed module or
plug-in to be added. Word selection or
sequence don't necessarily match the
original, which is intended to add variety.
Presentation software like Keynote or Pages
use it as a samples for screenplay layout.
Content management software as Joomla,
Drupal, Mambo, PHP-Nuke, WordPress, or
Movable Type offer Lorem Ipsum plug-ins
with the same functionality.

Contact

Korean: 국민경제의 발전을 위한

중요정책의 수립에 관하여 대통령의
자문에 응하기 위하여
국민경제자문회의를 둘 수 있다. Greek:
Λορεμ ιπσθμ δολορ σιτ αμετ, μει ιδ νοvθμ
φαβελλασ πετεντιθμ vελ νε, ατ νισλ σονετ
οπορτερε εθμ. Αλιι δοcτθσ μει ιδ, νο αθτεμ
αθδιρε ιντερεσσετ μελ, δοcενδι cομμθνε
οπορτεατ τε cθμ. Japanese Lorem Ipsum:
旅ロ京青利セムレ弱改フヨス波府かばぼ
意送でぼ調掲察たス日西重ケアナ住橋ユ
ムミク順待ふかんぼ人奨貯鏡すびそ。
Contact
facebook
Russian Lorem Ipsum: Лорем ипсум
долор сит амет, пер цлита поссит ех, ат
мунере фабулас петентиум сит. Иус цу
цибо саперет сцрипсерит, нец виси
муциус лабитур ид. Ет хис нонумес
нолуиссе дигниссим. Chinese Lorem
Ipsum: 側経意責家方家閉討店暖育田庁
載社転線宇。得君新術治温抗添代話考振
投員殴大闘北裁。品間識部案代学凰処済
準世一戸刻法分。悼測済諏計飯利安凶断
理資沢同岩面文認革。内警格化再薬方久
化体教御決数詭芸得筆代。 Indian
Lorem Ipsum: पढाए ह िंदी र ारुप अनुवाद कार्यलर् मुख्य सिंस्था सोफ़तवेर
हनरपेक्ष उनका आपके बाटते आशाआपस मुख्यत उशकी करता। शुरुआत सिंस्था कुशलता
मेंभटृ अनुवाद गएआप हवशेष सकते पररभाहषत लाभान्वित प्रहत दे कर समजते हदशामे प्राप्त जैसे

Armeninian
वर्यन सिंस्थान हनमाय ता प्रव्रुहत भाहत चुनने उपलब्ध बेंगलूर अथयपुर्य

Lorem Ipsum: լոռեմ իպսում դոլոռ սիթ

ամեթ, լաբոռե մոդեռաթիուս եթ հաս,
պեռ ոմնիս լաթինե դիսպութաթիոնի աթ,
վիս ֆեուգաիթ ծիվիբուս եխ. վիվենդում
լաբոռամուս ելաբոռառեթ նամ ին.
Arab Lorem Ipsum: ‫غينيا واستمر العصبة ضرب‬
‫ الثقيلة‬،‫ هو العالم‬,،‫ وباءت األمريكي األوربيين هو به‬.‫قد‬
‫ قد بحق أسابيع العظمى‬,‫ مع وايرلندا األوروبيّون كان‬.‫بال‬
‫ انه كل وإقامة المواد‬.‫واعتالء‬. Hebrew Lorem
Ipsum: ‫ דת דפים‬,‫כדי יסוד מונחים מועמדים של‬
‫ גם אחר‬,‫ אתה דת שונה כלשהו‬.‫מאמרשיחהצפה זאת‬
‫ ויש בקלות‬.‫ או ניווט פולנית לחיבור ארץ‬,‫ליום בשפות‬
‫ אל אינו כלכלה שתי‬,‫ואמנות אירועים או‬.

Lorem Ipsum: when, and when not to use it

Do you like Cheese Whiz? Spray tan? Fake
eyelashes? That's what is Lorem Ipsum to
many—it rubs them the wrong way, all the
way. It's unreal, uncanny, makes you
wonder if something is wrong, it seems to
seek your attention for all the wrong
reasons. Usually, we prefer the real thing,
wine without sulfur based preservatives, real
butter, not margarine, and so we'd like our
layouts and designs to be filled with real
words, with thoughts that count, information
that has value.
The toppings you may chose for that TV
dinner pizza slice when you forgot to shop
for foods, the paint you may slap on your
face to impress the new boss is your
business. But what about your daily bread?
Design comps, layouts, wireframes—will
your clients accept that you go about things
the facile way? Authorities in our business
will tell in no uncertain terms that Lorem
Ipsum is that huge, huge no no to forswear
forever. Not so fast, I'd say, there are some
redeeming factors in favor of greeking text,
as its use is merely the symptom of a worse
problem to take into consideration.
You begin with a text, you sculpt
information, you chisel away what's not
needed, you come to the point, make things
clear, add value, you're a content person,
you like words. Design is no afterthought,
far from it, but it comes in a deserved
second. Anyway, you still use Lorem Ipsum
and rightly so, as it will always have a place
in the web workers toolbox, as things
happen, not always the way you like it, not
always in the preferred order. Even if your
less into design and more into content
strategy you may find some redeeming value
with, wait for it, dummy copy, no less.
Consider this: You made all the required
mock ups for commissioned layout, got all
the approvals, built a tested code base or had
them built, you decided on a content
management system, got a license for it or
adapted open source software for your
client's needs. Then the question arises:
where's the content? Not there yet? That's
not so bad, there's dummy copy to the
rescue. But worse, what if the fish doesn't fit
in the can, the foot's to big for the boot? Or
to small? To short sentences, to many
headings, images too large for the proposed
design, or too small, or they fit in but it
looks iffy for reasons the folks in the
meeting can't quite tell right now, but they're
unhappy, somehow. A client that's unhappy
for a reason is a problem, a client that's
unhappy though he or her can't quite put a
finger on it is worse.
But. A big but: Lorem Ipsum is not t the root
of the problem, it just shows what's going
wrong. Chances are there wasn't
collaboration, communication, and
checkpoints, there wasn't a process agreed
upon or specified with the granularity
required. It's content strategy gone awry
right from the start. Forswearing the use of
Lorem Ipsum wouldn't have helped, won't
help now. It's like saying you're a bad
designer, use less bold text, don't use italics
in every other paragraph. True enough, but
that's not all that it takes to get things back
on track.
So Lorem Ipsum is bad (not necessarily)
There's lot of hate out there for a text that
amounts to little more than garbled words in
an old language. The villagers are out there
with a vengeance to get that Frankenstein,
wielding torches and pitchforks, wanting to
tar and feather it at the least, running it out
of town in shame.
One of the villagers, Kristina Halvorson
from Adaptive Path, holds steadfastly to the
notion that design can’t be tested without
real content:
I’ve heard the argument that “lorem ipsum”
is effective in wireframing or design because
it helps people focus on the actual layout, or
color scheme, or whatever. What kills me
here is that we’re talking about creating a
user experience that will (whether we like it
or not) be DRIVEN by words. The entire
structure of the page or app flow is FOR
THE WORDS.
If that's what you think how bout the other
way around? How can you evaluate content
without design? No typography, no colors,
no layout, no styles, all those things that
convey the important signals that go beyond
the mere textual, hierarchies of information,
weight, emphasis, oblique stresses,
priorities, all those subtle cues that also have
visual and emotional appeal to the reader.
Rigid proponents of content strategy may
shun the use of dummy copy but then
designers might want to ask them to provide
style sheets with the copy decks they supply
that are in tune with the design direction
they require.
Or else, an alternative route: set checkpoints,
networks, processes, junctions between
content and layout. Depending on the state
of affairs it may be fine to concentrate either
on design or content, reversing gears when
needed.
Or maybe not. How about this: build in
appropriate intersections and checkpoints
between design and content. Accept that it’s
sometimes okay to focus just on the content
or just on the design.
Luke Wroblewski, currently a Product
Director at Google, holds that fake data can
break down in real life:
Using dummy content or fake information in
the Web design process can result in
products with unrealistic assumptions and
potentially serious design flaws. A
seemingly elegant design can quickly begin
to bloat with unexpected content or break
under the weight of actual activity. Fake
data can ensure a nice looking layout but it
doesn’t reflect what a living, breathing
application must endure. Real data does.
Websites in professional use templating
systems. Commercial publishing platforms
and content management systems ensure
that you can show different text, different
data using the same template. When it's
about controlling hundreds of articles,
product pages for web shops, or user profiles
in social networks, all of them potentially
with different sizes, formats, rules for
differing elements things can break, designs
agreed upon can have unintended
consequences and look much different than
expected.
This is quite a problem to solve, but just
doing without greeking text won't fix it.
Using test items of real content and data in
designs will help, but there's no guarantee
that every oddity will be found and
corrected. Do you want to be sure? Then a
prototype or beta site with real content
published from the real CMS is needed—but
you’re not going that far until you go
through an initial design cycle.
Lorem Ipsum actually is usefull in the
design stage as it focuses our attention on
places where the content is a dynamic block
coming from the CMS (unlike static content
elements that will always stay the same.)
Blocks of Lorem Ipsum with a character
count range provide a obvious reminder to
check and re-check that the design and the
content model match up.
Kyle Fiedler from the Design Informer feels
that distracting copy is your fault:
If the copy becomes distracting in the design
then you are doing something wrong or they
are discussing copy changes. It might be a
bit annoying but you could tell them that
that discussion would be best suited for
another time. At worst the discussion is at
least working towards the final goal of your
site where questions about lorem ipsum
don’t.
Summing up, if the copy is diverting
attention from the design it’s because it’s
not up to task.
Typographers of yore didn't come up with
the concept of dummy copy because people
thought that content is inconsequential
window dressing, only there to be used by
designers who can’t be bothered to read.
Lorem Ipsum is needed because words
matter, a lot. Just fill up a page with draft
copy about the client’s business and they
will actually read it and comment on it.
They will be drawn to it, fiercely. Do it the
wrong way and draft copy can derail your
design review.
Asking the client to pay no attention Lorem
Ipsum isn't hard as it doesn’t make sense in
the first place, that will limit any initial
interest soon enough. Try telling a client to
ignore draft copy however, and you're up to
something you can't win. Whenever draft
copy comes up in a meeting confused
questions about it ensue.
Summing up, really:
Lorem Ipsum is a tool that can be useful,
used intentionally it may help solve some
problems. If you go about content strategy
the wrong way, fix that problem.
Lorem Ipsum plugins

Office suites
1. MS Word: From 2007 onwards
typing =lorem(i) or =lorem(i, j) in
MS Word creates greeking text--don't
forget to hit the enter key; i and j need
to be integers, where i stands for the
amount of desired paragraphs and j
numbers the sentences per paragraph. j
 has a default value of 3 and a maximum
set to 6665. >> screenshots
2. Open Office: An extension named
Magenta Lorem ipsum generator is
available at services.openoffice.org.
Once installed, an icon will be shown in
a toolbar below the menu bar, with the
option to insert a number of paragraphs,
the maximum is set to 25. >> screenshots
3. Libre Office: Magenta Lorem Ipsum
Generator 2.0.2, available for
LibreOffice 3.3, LibreOffice 3.4, and
LibreOffice 3.5.

Lorem Ipsum plugins:

content management
systems (CMS)
1.
o Joomla
o Dummy Content: an editor button
and system plugin (Joomla extension)
that sets random dummy copy in
articles or in other content item that
have editors like custom HTML
modules, category descriptions, or
third party content.
o Folcomedia - Button Lorem Ipsum:
creates a button in the editor to insert
a paragraph of "Lorem Ipsum"
greeking text.
o Content Fake: a component that
allows for easy creation of menu
items, quickly creating paragraphs of
"Lorem Ipsum" and pictures with
custom sizes.
o Overview of all Joomla plugins for
Lorem Ipsum generation.
2.
o Wordpress
o Lorem Ipsum Generator: Creates a
button on wysiwyg toolbars to add a
configurable amount of Lorem Ipsum
text to a post, page or any other
custom post type.
o lorem shortcode: This plugin contains
two shortcodes, lorem and
loremimage, the loremimage
shortcode can be nested in the lorem
shortcode.
o WP Dummy Content: Easy
generation and deletion of blog posts,
pages, and sub pages for developers.
Full site structure in one click.
o WP Dummy Post Generator: A
plugin that generates dummy posts
and dummy categories. It also allows
to set names for blogs or taglines.
o Bulk Page Maker: Creates up to 20
pages or posts at a time. You can
choose title, slug, parent, template,
 status, format, and content via the
default WordPress Editor.
o Lorem ipsum dummy article
shortcode: A seeded dummy article
generator. This doesn't only generates
'Lorem Ipsum' shortcode but also full
HTML articles.
o DNS Ipsum - Due North Studios
Lorem Ipsum Generator: Adds Lorem
Ipsum text using [dns-ipsum]
shortcode and a TinyMCE button.
o Lorem Ipsum and Place Holder
Image Generator: A simple to use
Lorem Ipsum generator.
o Lorem Ipsum Replace Content:
Replaces content with Lorem Ipsum,
substitutes word for word.
o Data Generator: Makes example
posts, pages, custom terms, helps to
style and develop new and current
 themes. It's based on the Lolita
framework.
o Overview of all Wordpress plugins
for Lorem Ipsum generation.
3.
o Magento
o Hatimeria Landing Pages: Creates
landing pages with products using all
combinations based on categories,
attributes and their values.
Description is supplied in the ackend
("lorem ipsum..."). Supports all
features like CMS-Block, injecting
widgets, blocks, or variables.
4.
o Google Docs
o Lorem Generator: A plugin for
Chrome browsers that allows
designers and webmaster to generate
Lorem Ipsum text from the sidebar
without leaving Google Docs.
 5.
o Drupal
o Drupal Ipsum: A helper module for
generating dummy filler text.
Presently it defines a new ipsum
provider plugin manager service that
allows for pluggable ipsum provider
classes, making it easy to change
existing implementations and also to
add new ones.
o Lorem ipsum: A simple filler text
generator generator. Use your custom
sentences and create some original
Lorem ipsum.
6. Adobe Dreamweaver, a web
development environment, has a plugin
in form of a Dreamweaver object named
Dreamweaver Text. It can be accessed
both from the Objects menu via Common
> Lorem Ipsum palette or using the
 Lorem Ipsum entry in the Insert >
Technocurve Menu.

An alternative, possibly more versatile,

is Lorem and More. It inserts dummy
copy as paragraphs, lists, and regular
text. Optionally available are extracts
from a speech by Cicero, corporate
nonsense, and a randomised sonnet by
Shakespeare. Text may be inserted in
code view and design view. The tool can
be accessed via the Lorem and More
icon on the Common tab of the Insert bar
(MX) or the Common objects panel
(DW4). Else, it's accessible using the
menu: Insert > Lorem and More.
7. It's easy to insert dummy copy with
the Scribus text editor. Select a text
frame, then chose "Sample Text" from
the context menu after right-clicking.
Predefined dummy copy in any
 languages can be set by configuring an
XML file and storing it in a subdirectory
"/loremipsum" of your Scribus
installation. >> screenshots

Lorem Ipsum plugins:

editors
 Notepad++
 For notepad++, a Windows text editor,
the InsertLoremIpsumNppPlugin can be
downloaded at twenfour.com. It
generates and inserts Lorem Ipsum,
either as words, sentences, or paragraphs.
The installation requires to copy the file
InsertLoremIpsumNppPlugin.dll and the
Config directory (both are contained in
the zip file) to the "plugins" subdirectory
of the Notepad++ installation directory.
Afterwards, a new option
"InsertLoremIpsum" will show in the
 "plugin" menu entry. A restart may be
required. >> screenshots
 ToolBucket: This plugin allows for base
64 encoding, it has a change indentation
dialog, it generates Lorem Ipsum and has
many more features.
 Sublime Text
 Insert lorem and press the tab key, this
will insert a Lorem Ipsum paragraph.
lorem200 + tab will add 200 words.
 Lorem Ipsum generator: A plugin by
Emmet, an toolkit for web-developers.
After installation type lorem or lipsum,
this will generate a 30-words dummy
text, splitted into a few sentences. You
can also use it inside repeated elements
to create tags filled with completely
random sentences. For example,
p*4>lorem would generate 4 paragraphs
with greeking text. ul.generic-
list>lorem10.item*4 will generate an
 unordered list with the class name
"generic-list" that contains 4 list items
with ten words of Lorem Ipsum each.
 LoremIpsum: A plugin for Sublime
Editor 2 and 3 from billymoon hosted at
github.com. It allows to insert Lorem
Ipsum in the editor via menu items or
keyboard shortcuts. Select how much
text you want from the menu item in
Edit->Text->Lorem Ipsum or in the right
click menu in Lorem Ipsum. Press the
shortcut key (Alt+Shift+L) to add Lorem
Ipsum text. Keep pressing to add more.
 Geany: GeanyLipsum is a plugin for
Windows and Linux. It inserts Lorem
Ipsum copy with a length of 1 to 5,000
chars and provides a keyboard shortcut.
Do you know of other plugins? Please tell
us.