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  Using lorem ipsum to focus attention on graphic elements in a webpage design proposal

In publishing and graphic design, Lorem ipsum^[1] is placeholder text (filler text) commonly used to demonstrate the graphics elements of a document or visual presentation, such as font, typography, and layout. The lorem ipsum text is typically a section of a Latin text by Cicero with words altered, added and removed that make it nonsensical in meaning and not proper Latin.^[1]

Even though "lorem ipsum" may arouse curiosity because of its resemblance to classical Latin, it is not intended to have meaning. If text is comprehensible in a document, people tend to focus on the textual content rather than upon overall presentation.^{[citation needed]} Therefore publishers use lorem ipsum when displaying a typeface or design elements and page layout in order to direct the focus to the publication style and not the meaning of the text. In spite of its basis in Latin, the use of lorem ipsum is often referred to as greeking, from the phrase "it's all Greek to me", which indicates that something is not meant to be readable text.^[2]

  Example text

A common form of lorem ipsum text reads as follows:

Another version of the text uses the word "adipisici" (rather than "adipiscing"; the digraph ng at the end of words is alien to classical Latin). Other versions of lorem ipsum include additional words to add variety so that repeated verses will not word-wrap on the same phrases.

  History and discovery

A variation of the common lorem ipsum text has been used since at least the 1960s, and possibly since the sixteenth century,^[1] to provide a filler text during typesetting.

The text is derived from sections 1.10.32–3 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Boundaries of Goods and Evils, or alternatively [About] The Purposes of Good and Evil).^[3] The original passage began: Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit (Translation: "Neither is there anyone who loves grief itself since it is grief and thus wants to obtain it"). It is not known exactly when the text acquired its current standard form; it may have been as late as the 1960s. The passage was discovered by Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar who is the publications director at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, by searching for citings of the rarely used Latin word "consectetur" in classical literature.^[1]

The original version (with the excerpted items highlighted) appears in Book 1, sections 32–3 (pagination varies by publisher):

[32] 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?

[33] At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa, qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio, cumque nihil impedit, quo minus id, quod maxime placeat, facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet, ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat...

The text does not have any occurrences of the letters K, or Z (not uncommon due to the letters' use primarily as a transliteration of Greek words), nor the letter W, because it was not part of the Classical Roman Alphabet.

  English translation

H. Rackham's 1914 translation (with the major source of lorem ipsum highlighted):

[32] 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?

[33] 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 untrammeled 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.

  Variations

Cicero's first Oration against Catiline is sometimes used in type specimens: Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet?…

Today's popular version of lorem ipsum was first created for Aldus Corporation's first desktop publishing program Aldus PageMaker in the mid-1980s for the Apple Macintosh.^[1] Art director Laura Perry adapted older forms of the lorem text from typography samples—it was, for example, widely used in Letraset catalogs in the 1960s and 1970s^[1] (anecdotes suggest that the original use of the "Lorem ipsum" text was by Letraset, which was used for print layouts by advertising agencies as early as the 1970s). The text was frequently used in PageMaker templates. Or variations as Russian phrase: нфюкг e.t.c.

Various pieces of software, including text editors (or plug-in modules for same), can generate semi-random "lorem text" that often has little or nothing in common with the canonical variety, other than looking like (and often being) jumbled Latin. Apple's Pages and Keynote software use this jumbled text as a sample screenplay for their screenplay layout. Lorem ipsum is also featured on Joomla! and WordPress web content managers. Microsoft Office Word 2007 and 2010 have a Lorem ipsum feature.^[4] There are two different extensions for inserting "lorem text" into web pages in Adobe Dreamweaver: "Lorem and More"^[5] and "Lorem Ipsum Generator".^[6]

  See also

• Asemic writing
• ETAOIN SHRDLU
• Filler text
• Greeking
• Li Europan lingues
• List of Latin phrases
• Metasyntactic variable
• The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

  References

  External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lorem ipsum

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Lorem ipsum

Look up Lorem ipsum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• The original De finibus bonorum et malorum (Book 1) from Cicero, on Latin WikiSource.

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