An example of the Lorem ipsum placeholder text on a green and white webpage.
Using Lorem ipsum to focus attention on graphic elements in a webpage design proposal
An example of the Lorem ipsum placeholder text on a Letraset sample sheet. Date unknown, possibly 1970s.

Lorem ipsum (/ˌlɔː.rəm ˈɪp.səm/ LOR-əm IP-səm) is a dummy or placeholder text commonly used in graphic design, publishing, and web development. It is typically a corrupted version of De finibus bonorum et malorum, a 1st-century BC text by the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero, with words altered, added, and removed to make it nonsensical and improper Latin. The first two words are the truncation of dolorem ipsum ("pain itself"). Lorem ipsum's purpose is to permit a page layout to be designed, independently of the copy that will subsequently populate it, or to demonstrate various fonts of a typeface without meaningful text that could be distracting.

Versions of the Lorem ipsum text have been used in typesetting since the late 1960s, when Letraset transfer sheets containing the placeholder text popularized it.[1] Popular word processors, including Pages and Microsoft Word, have since adopted Lorem ipsum,[2] as have many LaTeX packages,[3][4][5] web content managers such as Joomla! and WordPress, and CSS libraries such as Semantic UI.[not in body]

Example text

A common form of Lorem ipsum reads:

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.

Meaning

Despite originating in De finibus, the text has undergone slight changes, notably the cutting off of the -do in dolorem and replacing of the suffix in adipiscing. As a result of this and the usually random generation of some versions, the text has no clear meaning in Latin.

Origins

The Lorem ipsum text is derived from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum.[6][7] The physical source may have been the 1914 Loeb Classical Library edition of De finibus, where the Latin text, presented on the left-hand (even) pages, breaks off on page 34 with "Neque porro quisquam est qui do-" and continues on page 36 with "lorem ipsum ...."[1] The Lorem ipsum text continues with excerpts that appear to generally match the layouts of pages 56, 70, and 118,[8] suggesting that the layout of the Loeb book was the source of the dummy text seen today.[1]

The first published explanation of the text's origin is attributed to Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar at Hampden–Sydney College. McClintock connected Lorem ipsum to Cicero's writing sometime before 1982[further explanation needed] by searching for recorded uses of the Latin word consectetur, which was rarely used in classical literature.[2] McClintock first published his discovery in a 1994 letter to John McWade, the editor of the Before & After magazine,[9] contesting McWade's earlier claim that Lorem ipsum had no meaning.[2] That letter claimed that the placeholder text had been used since the 1500s, but McClintock admitted in a 2026 interview that that date had been a guess with no evidence to back it up.[8]

The version in use today is derived from Letraset transfer sheets first published in 1966.[10][11] According to Letraset designer Dave Farey, the text was supplied by British librarian James Mosley as an alternative to the Quousque tandem abutere text from elsewhere in Cicero's writings that had been used in typography manuals since the 1730s.[12] Monotype typographer Dan Rhatigan theorized that the Letraset version deliberately "garbled" the original Latin text to better match the letter frequency of the English language.[13]

The sections of De finibus bonorum et malorum from which Lorem ipsum ultimately derives is one in which Cicero proposes that pleasure be obtained rationally rather than impulsively.[a] The relevant sections as printed in the source is reproduced below, with fragments used in Lorem ipsum underlined. Letters in square brackets were added to Lorem ipsum and were not present in the source text:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ He records a conversation in his home city of Cumae between himself and Lucius Manlius Torquatus, a young Epicurean, while another young Roman, Gaius Valerius Triarius, listens on.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Cibois, Philippe (2012-06-03). "Lorem ipsum: nouvel état de la question". L'Intelligence du Monde. L'Institut français. doi:10.58079/ptrd. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  2. 1 2 3 Adams, Cecil (February 2001). "What does the filler text 'lorem ipsum' mean?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  3. ↑ "LaTeX lipsum package". Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  4. ↑ "LaTeX blind text package". Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  5. ↑ "How to insert sample text into a document in Word". Microsoft Support. 18 September 2011. Archived from the original on 12 January 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  6. ↑ "Description of the "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" text that appears in Word Help". support.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2007-03-22.
  7. 1 2 Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Rackham, H. (1914). De finibus bonorum et malorum (in Latin and English). New York: Macmillan Co. p. 36 (Book I ix 32).
  8. 1 2 McClintock, Richard (30 May 2026). "The Unsolved Mystery of Lorem Ipsum". Rabbit Hole (Interview). Interviewed by Zhang, Emily Lin. Hampden Sydney, Virginia, United States: YouTube.com. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  9. ↑ Before & After 4:2, according to Norman Walsh. "Frequently Asked Questions About Fonts". Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  10. ↑ "What does "Lorem Ipsum" really mean?". NSS Magazine. 22 August 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
  11. ↑ "News and commentary on what's new". Print Design and Production. 2 (1). Cox & Sharland: 38. January 1966. ISSN 0555-1625.
  12. ↑ Zhang, Emily Lin (30 May 2026). The Unsolved Mystery of Lorem Ipsum. Rabbit Hole. Retrieved 3 June 2026 – via YouTube.
  13. ↑ Rhatigan, Dan (30 May 2026). "The Unsolved Mystery of Lorem Ipsum". Rabbit Hole (Interview). Interviewed by Zhang, Emily Lin. YouTube.com. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum