Meaningless Gibberish

Information

 Lorem Ipsum: Usage, Common examples, Translation,

Variants and technical information
 Essay: Lorem Ipsum--when, and when not to use it
 Plugins:
 Content management systems (CMS): Joomla, Wordpress,
Magento, Google Docs, Drupal
 Editors: Notepad++, Sublime Text, Office suites

Lorem Ipsum: usage

Lorem ipsum is a pseudo-Latin text used in web design,

typography, layout, and printing in place of English to emphasise
design elements over content. It's also called placeholder (or filler)
text. It's a convenient tool for mock-ups. It helps to outline the
visual elements of a document or presentation, eg typography,
font, or layout. Lorem ipsum is mostly a part of a Latin text by the
classical author and philosopher Cicero. Its words and letters have
been changed by addition or removal, so to deliberately render its
content nonsensical; it's not genuine, correct, or comprehensible
Latin anymore. While lorem ipsum's still resembles classical Latin,
it actually has no meaning whatsoever. As Cicero's text doesn't
contain the letters K, W, or Z, alien to latin, these, and others are
often inserted randomly to mimic the typographic appearence of
European languages, as are digraphs not to be found in the
original.

In a professional context it often happens that private or corporate

clients corder a publication to be made and presented with the
actual content still not being ready. Think of a news blog that's
filled with content hourly on the day of going live. However,
reviewers tend to be distracted by comprehensible content, say, a
random text copied from a newspaper or the internet. The are likely
to focus on the text, disregarding the layout and its elements.
Besides, random text risks to be unintendedly humorous or
offensive, an unacceptable risk in corporate environments. Lorem
ipsum and its many variants have been employed since the early
1960ies, and quite likely since the sixteenth century.

Lorem Ipsum: common examples

Most of its text is made up from sections 1.10.32–3 of Cicero's De

finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Boundaries of Goods and
Evils; finibus may also be translated as purposes). Neque porro
quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet,
consectetur, adipisci velit is the first known version ("Neither is
there anyone who loves grief itself since it is grief and thus wants
to obtain it"). It was found by Richard McClintock, a philologist,
director of publications at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia; he
searched for citings of consectetur in classical Latin literature, a
term of remarkably low frequency in that literary corpus.

Cicero famously orated against his political opponent Lucius Sergius

Catilina. Occasionally the first Oration against Catiline is taken for
type specimens: Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia
nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? (How long, O
Catiline, will you abuse our patience? And for how long will that
madness of yours mock us?)

Cicero's version of Liber Primus (first Book), sections 1.10.32–3

(fragments included in most Lorem Ipsum variants in red):

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?

Lorem Ipsum: translation

The Latin scholar H. Rackham translated the above in 1914:

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, butoccasionally
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?

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 untrammelled 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.

Lorem Ipsum: variants and technical information

In 1985 Aldus Corporation launched its first desktop publishing

program Aldus PageMaker for Apple Macintosh computers, released
in 1987 for PCs running Windows 1.0. Both contained the variant
lorem ipsum most common today. Laura Perry, then art director
with Aldus, modified prior versions of Lorem Ipsum text from
typographical specimens; in the 1960s and 1970s it appeared often
in lettering catalogs by Letraset. Anecdotal evidence has it that
Letraset used Lorem ipsum already from 1970 onwards, eg. for
grids (page layouts) for ad agencies. Many early desktop publishing
programs, eg. Adobe PageMaker, used it to create template.

Most text editors like MS Word or Lotus Notes generate random

lorem text when needed, either as pre-installed module or plug-in
to be added. Word selection or sequence don't necessarily match
the original, which is intended to add variety. Presentation software
like Keynote or Pages use it as a samples for screenplay layout.
Content management software as Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, PHP-
Nuke, WordPress, or Movable Type offer Lorem Ipsumplug-ins
with the same functionality.

Contact
Korean: 국민경제의 발전을 위한 중요정책의 수립에 관하여 대통령의
자문에 응하기 위하여 국민경제자문회의를 둘 수 있다. Greek: Λορεμ
ιπσθμ δολορ σιτ αμετ, μει ιδ νοvθμ φαβελλασ πετεντιθμ vελ νε, ατ
νισλ σονετ οπορτερε εθμ. Αλιι δοcτθσ μει ιδ, νο αθτεμ αθδιρε
ιντερεσσετ μελ, δοcενδι cομμθνε οπορτεατ τε cθμ. Japanese
Lorem Ipsum: 旅ロ京青利セムレ弱改フヨス波府かばぼ意送でぼ調掲察たス日西
重ケアナ住橋ユムミク順待ふかんぼ人奨貯鏡すびそ。

Contact
facebook

Russian Lorem Ipsum: Лорем ипсум долор сит амет, пер цлита
поссит ех, ат мунере фабулас петентиум сит. Иус цу цибо
саперет сцрипсерит, нец виси муциус лабитур ид. Ет хис
нонумес нолуиссе дигниссим. Chinese Lorem Ipsum: 側経意責家
方家閉討店暖育田庁載社転線宇。得君新術治温抗添代話考振投員殴大闘北裁。
品間識部案代学凰処済準世一戸刻法分。悼測済諏計飯利安凶断理資沢同岩面
文認革。内警格化再薬方久化体教御決数詭芸得筆代。 Indian Lorem
Ipsum: पढाए ह िं दी र ारुप अनुवाद कार्यलर् मुख्य सिंस्था सोफ़तवेर हनरपेक्ष
उनका आपके बाटते आशाआपस मुख्यत उशकी करता। शुरुआत सिंस्था कुशलता
मेंभटृ अनुवाद गएआप हवशेष सकते पररभाहषत लाभान्वित प्रहत दे कर समजते
हदशामे प्राप्त जैसे वर्यन सिंस्थान हनमाय ता प्रव्रुहत भाहत चुनने उपलब्ध बेंगलूर अथयपुर्य
Armeninian Lorem Ipsum: լոռեմ իպսում դոլոռ սիթ ամեթ,
լաբոռե մոդեռաթիուս եթ հաս, պեռ ոմնիս լաթինե
դիսպութաթիոնի աթ, վիս ֆեուգաիթ ծիվիբուս եխ. վիվենդում
լաբոռամուս ելաբոռառեթ նամ ին.

Arab Lorem Ipsum: ‫قد ضرب العصبة واستمر غينيا‬. ‫به هو األوربيين األمريكي وباءت‬،,
‫العالم هو‬، ‫بال الثقيلة‬. ‫كان األوروبيّون وايرلندا مع‬, ‫واعتالء العظمى أسابيع بحق قد‬. ‫وإقامة كل انه‬
‫المواد‬. Hebrew Lorem Ipsum: ‫של מועמדים מונחים יסוד כדי‬, ‫דפים דת‬
‫זאת מאמרשיחהצפה‬. ‫כלשהו שונה דת אתה‬, ‫בשפות ליום אחר גם‬, ‫פולנית ניווט או‬
‫ארץ לחיבור‬. ‫או אירועים ואמנות בקלות ויש‬, ‫שתי כלכלה אינו אל‬.

Lorem Ipsum: when, and when not to use itDo you like Cheese Whiz?
Spray tan? Fake eyelashes? That's what is Lorem Ipsum to many—it
rubs them the wrong way, all the way. It's unreal, uncanny, makes
you wonder if something is wrong, it seems to seek your attention for
all the wrong reasons. Usually, we prefer the real thing, wine without
sulfur based preservatives, real butter, not margarine, and so we'd
like our layouts and designs to be filled with real words, with
thoughts that count, information that has value.

The toppings you may chose for that TV dinner pizza slice when you
forgot to shop for foods, the paint you may slap on your face to
impress the new boss is your business. But what about your daily
bread? Design comps, layouts, wireframes—will your clients accept
that you go about things the facile way? Authorities in our business
will tell in no uncertain terms that Lorem Ipsum is that huge, huge
no no to forswear forever. Not so fast, I'd say, there are some
redeeming factors in favor of greeking text, as its use is merely the
symptom of a worse problem to take into consideration.

You begin with a text, you sculpt information, you chisel away
what's not needed, you come to the point, make things clear, add
value, you're a content person, you like words. Design is no
afterthought, far from it, but it comes in a deserved second.
Anyway, you still use Lorem Ipsum and rightly so, as it will always
have a place in the web workers toolbox, as things happen, not
always the way you like it, not always in the preferred order. Even
if your less into design and more into content strategy you may find
some redeeming value with, wait for it, dummy copy, no less.

Consider this: You made all the required mock ups for
commissioned layout, got all the approvals, built a tested code base
or had them built, you decided on a content management system,
got a license for it or adapted open source software for your client's
needs. Then the question arises: where's the content? Not there
yet? That's not so bad, there's dummy copy to the rescue. But
worse, what if the fish doesn't fit in the can, the foot's to big for the
boot? Or to small? To short sentences, to many headings, images
too large for the proposed design, or too small, or they fit in but it
looks iffy for reasons the folks in the meeting can't quite tell right
now, but they're unhappy, somehow. A client that's unhappy for a
reason is a problem, a client that's unhappy though he or her can't
quite put a finger on it is worse.

But. A big but: Lorem Ipsum is not t the root of the problem, it just
shows what's going wrong. Chances are there wasn't collaboration,
communication, and checkpoints, there wasn't a process agreed
upon or specified with the granularity required. It's content strategy
gone awry right from the start. Forswearing the use of Lorem
Ipsum wouldn't have helped, won't help now. It's like saying you're
a bad designer, use less bold text, don't use italics in every other
paragraph. True enough, but that's not all that it takes to get things
back on track.

So Lorem Ipsum is bad (not necessarily)

There's lot of hate out there for a text that amounts to little more
than garbled words in an old language. The villagers are out there
with a vengeance to get that Frankenstein, wielding torches and
pitchforks, wanting to tar and feather it at the least, running it out
of town in shame.

One of the villagers, Kristina Halvorson from Adaptive Path, holds

steadfastly to the notion that design can’t be tested without real
content:

I’ve heard the argument that “lorem ipsum” is effective in

wireframing or design because it helps people focus on the actual
layout, or color scheme, or whatever. What kills me here is that we’re
talking about creating a user experience that will (whether we like it
or not) be DRIVEN by words. The entire structure of the page or app
flow is FOR THE WORDS.

If that's what you think how bout the other way around? How can
you evaluate content without design? No typography, no colors, no
layout, no styles, all those things that convey the important signals
that go beyond the mere textual, hierarchies of information,
weight, emphasis, oblique stresses, priorities, all those subtle cues
that also have visual and emotional appeal to the reader. Rigid
proponents of content strategy may shun the use of dummy copy
but then designers might want to ask them to provide style sheets
with the copy decks they supply that are in tune with the design
direction they require.

Or else, an alternative route: set checkpoints, networks, processes,

junctions between content and layout. Depending on the state of
affairs it may be fine to concentrate either on design or content,
reversing gears when needed.

Or maybe not. How about this: build in appropriate intersections

and checkpoints between design and content. Accept that it’s
sometimes okay to focus just on the content or just on the design.

Luke Wroblewski, currently a Product Director at Google, holds that

fake data can break down in real life:

Using dummy content or fake information in the Web design process

can result in products with unrealistic assumptions and potentially
serious design flaws. A seemingly elegant design can quickly begin to
bloat with unexpected content or break under the weight of actual
activity. Fake data can ensure a nice looking layout but it doesn’t
reflect what a living, breathing application must endure. Real data
does.

Websites in professional use templating systems. Commercial

publishing platforms and content management systems ensure that
you can show different text, different data using the same
template. When it's about controlling hundreds of articles, product
pages for web shops, or user profiles in social networks, all of them
potentially with different sizes, formats, rules for differing elements
things can break, designs agreed upon can have unintended
consequences and look much different than expected.

This is quite a problem to solve, but just doing without greeking

text won't fix it. Using test items of real content and data in designs
will help, but there's no guarantee that every oddity will be found
and corrected. Do you want to be sure? Then a prototype or beta
site with real content published from the real CMS is needed—but
you’re not going that far until you go through an initial design
cycle.

Lorem Ipsum actually is usefull in the design stage as it focuses our

attention on places where the content is a dynamic block coming
from the CMS (unlike static content elements that will always stay
the same.) Blocks of Lorem Ipsum with a character count range
provide a obvious reminder to check and re-check that the design
and the content model match up.

Kyle Fiedler from the Design Informer feels that distracting copy is
your fault:

If the copy becomes distracting in the design then you are doing
something wrong or they are discussing copy changes. It might be a
bit annoying but you could tell them that that discussion would be
best suited for another time. At worst the discussion is at least
working towards the final goal of your site where questions about
lorem ipsum don’t.

Summing up, if the copy is diverting attention from the

design it’s because it’s not up to task.

Typographers of yore didn't come up with the concept of dummy

copy because people thought that content is inconsequential
window dressing, only there to be used by designers who can’t be
bothered to read. Lorem Ipsum is needed because words matter, a
lot. Just fill up a page with draft copy about the client’s business
and they will actually read it and comment on it. They will be drawn
to it, fiercely. Do it the wrong way and draft copy can derail your
design review.

Asking the client to pay no attention Lorem Ipsum isn't hard as it

doesn’t make sense in the first place, that will limit any initial
interest soon enough. Try telling a client to ignore draft copy
however, and you're up to something you can't win. Whenever draft
copy comes up in a meeting confused questions about it ensue.

Summing up, really:

Lorem Ipsum is a tool that can be useful, used intentionally it may
help solve some problems. If you go about content strategy the
wrong way, fix that problem.

Lorem Ipsum plugins

Office suites

1. MS Word: From 2007 onwards typing =lorem(i) or =lorem(i, j)

in MS Word creates greeking text--don't forget to hit the enter
key; i and j need to be integers, where istands for the amount
of desired paragraphs and j numbers the sentences per
paragraph. j has a default value of 3 and a maximum set to
6665. >> screenshots

2. Open Office: An extension named Magenta Lorem ipsum

generator is available at services.openoffice.org. Once installed,
an icon will be shown in a toolbar below the menu bar, with the
option to insert a number of paragraphs, the maximum is set to
25. >> screenshots

3. Libre Office: Magenta Lorem Ipsum Generator 2.0.2, available

for LibreOffice 3.3, LibreOffice 3.4, and LibreOffice 3.5.

Lorem Ipsum plugins: content management systems (CMS)

1.

o Joomla

o Dummy Content: an editor button and system plugin

(Joomla extension) that sets random dummy copy in
articles or in other content item that have editors like
custom HTML modules, category descriptions, or third
party content.

o Folcomedia - Button Lorem Ipsum: creates a button in

the editor to insert a paragraph of "Lorem Ipsum"
greeking text.

o Content Fake: a component that allows for easy creation

of menu items, quickly creating paragraphs of "Lorem
Ipsum" and pictures with custom sizes.

o Overview of all Joomla plugins for Lorem Ipsum

generation.
2.

o Wordpress

o Lorem Ipsum Generator: Creates a button on wysiwyg

toolbars to add a configurable amount of Lorem Ipsum
text to a post, page or any other custom post type.

o lorem shortcode: This plugin contains two shortcodes,

lorem and loremimage, the loremimage shortcode can
be nested in the lorem shortcode.

o WP Dummy Content: Easy generation and deletion of

blog posts, pages, and sub pages for developers. Full
site structure in one click.

o WP Dummy Post Generator: A plugin that generates

dummy posts and dummy categories. It also allows to
set names for blogs or taglines.

o Bulk Page Maker: Creates up to 20 pages or posts at a

time. You can choose title, slug, parent, template,
status, format, and content via the default WordPress
Editor.

o Lorem ipsum dummy article shortcode: A seeded

dummy article generator. This doesn't only generates
'Lorem Ipsum' shortcode but also full HTML articles.

o DNS Ipsum - Due North Studios Lorem Ipsum

Generator: Adds Lorem Ipsum text using [dns-ipsum]
shortcode and a TinyMCE button.

o Lorem Ipsum and Place Holder Image Generator: A

simple to use Lorem Ipsum generator.

o Lorem Ipsum Replace Content: Replaces content with

Lorem Ipsum, substitutes word for word.

o Data Generator: Makes example posts, pages, custom

terms, helps to style and develop new and current
themes. It's based on the Lolita framework.

o Overview of all Wordpress plugins for Lorem Ipsum

generation.

3.
 o Magento

o Hatimeria Landing Pages: Creates landing pages with

products using all combinations based on categories,
attributes and their values. Description is supplied in
the ackend ("lorem ipsum..."). Supports all features like
CMS-Block, injecting widgets, blocks, or variables.

4.

o Google Docs

o Lorem Generator: A plugin for Chrome browsers that

allows designers and webmaster to generate Lorem
Ipsum text from the sidebar without leaving Google
Docs.

5.

o Drupal

o Drupal Ipsum: A helper module for generating dummy

filler text. Presently it defines a new ipsum provider
plugin manager service that allows for pluggable ipsum
provider classes, making it easy to change existing
implementations and also to add new ones.

o Lorem ipsum: A simple filler text generator generator.

Use your custom sentences and create some original
Lorem ipsum.

6.Adobe Dreamweaver, a web development environment, has a

plugin in form of a Dreamweaver object named Dreamweaver
Text. It can be accessed both from the Objects menu via
Common > Lorem Ipsum palette or using the Lorem Ipsum
entry in the Insert > Technocurve Menu.

An alternative, possibly more versatile, is Lorem and More. It

inserts dummy copy as paragraphs, lists, and regular text.
Optionally available are extracts from a speech by Cicero,
corporate nonsense, and a randomised sonnet by
Shakespeare. Text may be inserted in code view and design
view. The tool can be accessed via the Lorem and More icon
on the Common tab of the Insert bar (MX) or the Common
objects panel (DW4). Else, it's accessible using the menu:
Insert > Lorem and More.
 7. It's easy to insert dummy copy with the Scribus text editor.
Select a text frame, then chose "Sample Text" from the context
menu after right-clicking. Predefined dummy copy in any
languages can be set by configuring an XML file and storing it in
a subdirectory "/loremipsum" of your Scribus installation. >>
screenshots

Lorem Ipsum plugins: editors

 Notepad++

 For notepad++, a Windows text editor, the

InsertLoremIpsumNppPlugin can be downloaded at
twenfour.com. It generates and inserts Lorem Ipsum, either
as words, sentences, or paragraphs. The installation requires
to copy the file InsertLoremIpsumNppPlugin.dll and the
Config directory (both are contained in the zip file) to the
"plugins" subdirectory of the Notepad++ installation
directory. Afterwards, a new option "InsertLoremIpsum" will
show in the "plugin" menu entry. A restart may be required.
>> screenshots

 ToolBucket: This plugin allows for base 64 encoding, it has a

change indentation dialog, it generates Lorem Ipsum and has
many more features.

 Sublime Text

 Insert lorem and press the tab key, this will insert a Lorem
Ipsum paragraph. lorem200 + tab will add 200 words.

 Lorem Ipsum generator: A plugin by Emmet, an toolkit for

web-developers. After installation type lorem or lipsum, this
will generate a 30-words dummy text, splitted into a few
sentences. You can also use it inside repeated elements to
create tags filled with completely random sentences. For
example, p*4>lorem would generate 4 paragraphs with
greeking text. ul.generic-list>lorem10.item*4 will generate
an unordered list with the class name "generic-list" that
contains 4 list items with ten words of Lorem Ipsum each.

 LoremIpsum: A plugin for Sublime Editor 2 and 3 from

billymoon hosted at github.com. It allows to insert Lorem
Ipsum in the editor via menu items or keyboard shortcuts.
Select how much text you want from the menu item in Edit-
>Text->Lorem Ipsum or in the right click menu in Lorem
Ipsum. Press the shortcut key (Alt+Shift+L) to add Lorem
Ipsum text. Keep pressing to add more.
  Geany: GeanyLipsum is a plugin for Windows and Linux. It
inserts Lorem Ipsum copy with a length of 1 to 5,000 chars and
provides a keyboard shortcut.

Do you know of other plugins? Please tell us.