Understanding Lorem Ipsum
Lorem ipsum is placeholder text used in design and publishing to fill a layout before the real copy is ready. Because it looks like natural language but can't be read, people judge the typography, spacing and layout rather than getting distracted by what the words say.
Where it comes from
The text is a scrambled extract from De finibus bonorum et malorum ("On the ends of good and evil"), written by Cicero in 45 BC. The familiar opening, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet", comes from a passage that originally read "dolorem ipsum", part of a line about not seeking pain for its own sake. You will often read that printers have used it since the 1500s, but there is no solid evidence for that. It was popularised by Letraset transfer sheets in the 1960s and then by desktop publishing software in the 1980s.
Using this generator
- Choose paragraphs for body copy, sentences for card descriptions and short blurbs, or words when you need to hit an exact length, such as a headline or a 150-word excerpt.
- Turn on Start with "Lorem ipsum…" if you want the classic opening so anyone looking at the mock-up instantly recognises it as placeholder text.
- Turn on Wrap in <p> tags to paste straight into HTML or a CMS code view.
- The text changes only when you press Regenerate, so adding or removing paragraphs keeps the ones you already have.
When not to use it
Placeholder text can hide real problems. Real headlines are often longer than the lorem ipsum that stood in for them, and translated text can be 30% longer than English. Once you know roughly what the content will be, test with realistic copy, and make sure no lorem ipsum ships to production, where it confuses users and screen reader users alike.
