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Have you ever wondered where the popular Lorem Ipsum text comes from and why just about every designer, developer, and template source uses it? Or perhaps you just want to know what it means? Maybe not… Either way, we decided to get to the bottom of it.

The "Why"

Probably the most obvious question of the two, Lorem Ipsum is used because it is nonsensical text which does not detract from the visual presentation of a design. Additionally, the versions of Lorem Ipsum that are outputted by Lorem Ipsum generators do a good job of approximating a typical distribution of English words and spaces.

The "Where"

Today, many people who use this dummy text obtain it from special online or software-based text generators. But according toWikipedia, the original Lorem Ipsum text was derived from a Latin passage, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, by author Cicero.

The "What"

Although this text is derived from Latin, it does not actually have any meaning. Instead of being a direct sampling of Latin words, the Lorem Ipsum text is a sampling of letters in words, with many letters being omitted. So this imposter Latin text contains many words that do not actually exist in the real Latin language.

So there you have it! Hopefully we’ve supplied you with all that you’ve ever wanted to know about Lorem Ipsum. For a more comprehensive reference, check outWikipedia’s article on the subject.

Looking for a Lorem Ipsum generator? Take a look at this popular tool at lipsum.com.

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9 Responses to “Lorem Ipsum… Blah, Blah, Blah”

Domain Marvelous December 19, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I very unique article indeed. I have always come across this but it never crossed my mind as to why all templates and themes used this particular test rather than their own random posts.
This is an interesting read.
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- Velvet Blues December 20, 2008 at 7:29 am
  Now you know. At one point, I used to use my own ‘witty’ remarks or miscellaneous comments to populate designs or ‘empty’ websites. But my clients would often get sidetracked and comment on what I wrote. Clearly it was a distraction. When I made the switch to Lorem ipsum, we always stayed on track.
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Blog for Bloggers December 19, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I knew it was used as dummy text, and that it is the best “Mock Up” text. But interesting to know how it came about.
Nice article
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- Velvet Blues December 20, 2008 at 12:28 pm
  Yes it is interesting. For me, I’ve had many many years of studying Latin, so since I couldn’t decipher a meaning, I always just wondered about it.
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Ajith Edassery December 19, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Thanks for that wonderful explanation. Though I always wondered what it’s I never bothered to digg out though I thought it’s like the typical ‘Hello World’ text that most programming language text books give as an example.
Anything behind the ‘Hello Dolly’ plugin as well?
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- Velvet Blues December 20, 2008 at 12:28 pm
  Haha. Hello Dolly? Not a thing. It’s just a sample plugin that I think was created only to demonstrate the use of a plugin. All it does is display a message in the backend.
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Kim Woodbridge December 21, 2008 at 10:36 am
Like Ajith I knew it was dummy text but never put much thought into it. It kind of bothers me – I always want to see real text and never thought it would take away from the presentation.
Hello Dolly doesn’t really have a purpose but is the first plugin. And Matt Mullenweg is a big jazz fan – every release of WordPress has been named after a jazz musician.
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.com September 14, 2009 at 12:51 pm
thank you so much for this article; i had become obsessed with the question, and lost in latin-english translations of gibberish; i’m very grateful that you’ve brought an end to this current musing.
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John Talbot November 24, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Thanks, I was always curious about the origin and whether it said anything.
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