Lorem ipsum
‘Lorem Ipsum’ are the first two words of a classic piece of dummy text. Such filler text is used when the actual text is not available yet or when creating a brand new layout. Because the text is in Latin, people won’t be distracted by it and can focus on evaluating the design itself.
For many years, this text was available on adhesive sheets in different sizes and typefaces from LetraSet. Designers would cut the text out with a cutter and stick it on the page. Aldus included the ‘Lorem ipsum’ text in PageMaker and nowadays you even see it showing up on hundreds of web pages (try searching Google for ‘lorem ipsum’).
- According to some sources, it is useless to try and figure out what the text actually means, even in Latin it is complete gibberish. The words loosely approximate the frequency with which letters occur in English, which is why at a glance it looks pretty real.
- Richard McClintock, a Latin professor, claims the text is a slightly scrambled version of a passage from Cicero, specifically De finibus bonorum et malorum, a treatise on the theory of ethics written in 45 BC. McClintock recalled having seen ‘lorem ipsum’ in a book of early metal type samples, which commonly used extracts from the classics.
Below you find this standard piece of text. It can be repeated any number of times to create large blocks of text.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diem nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut lacreet dolore magna aliguam erat volutpat. Ut wisis enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tution ullam corper suscipit lobortis nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis te feugi facilisi. Duis autem dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit au gue duis dolore te feugat nulla facilisi.
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On the eve of the merger of Aldus and Adobe, a ‘yearbook’ was published by the Aldusians. Someone took the liberty to spell-check the “Lorem ipsum” text. When picking the alternatives suggested by the PageMaker spellchecker, this was the result:
Lorna’s dolorous bosom aiming consecutively at him, Eliot felt eclipsed by his damn pneumonia. (His) ethmoids nabbed him with the tenacity of a lorikeet. He drooled at this large Algerian with irate voluptuousness. He wished he’d taken an enema at the Venus Quai, or at least (some) nostril exercise at Ulamcorper Station–that cesspit of libertines–but his nasal equipment at every commode was already consecrated. “God (he thought), I’ll atone for this. Her hindquarters are of a golden hairiness, yet her veiled voluptuaries are consequently the homeliest.” Then, slowly, he figured it out: they were only falsies.
From “Manutius, The Aldus Yearbook 1984–1994″, Seattle, 1994
I tried the same with the spellchecker of Open Office, which doesn’t really come up with such a creative correction. I can only guess that the merger parties must have brought out the best in both the people and the software
While working on an ad for a client, I used Lorem Ipsum for the filler text:
Client: Got the ad & love it, but what does that text say?
Me: It’s Latin for “This is filler text”.
Client: Where did you learn latin?