The passage experienced a surge in popularity during the 1960s when Letraset used it on their dry-transfer sheets, and again during the 90s as desktop publishers bundled the text with their software. Today itās seen all around the web; on templates, websites, and stock designs. Use ourĀ generatorĀ to get your own, or read on for the authoritative history ofĀ lorem ipsum.
The passage experienced a surge in popularity during the 1960s when Letraset used it on their dry-transfer sheets, and again during the 90s as desktop publishers bundled the text with their software. Today itās seen all around the web; on templates, websites, and stock designs. Use ourĀ generatorĀ to get your own, or read on for the authoritative history ofĀ lorem ipsum.
Until recently, the prevailing view assumedĀ lorem ipsumĀ was born as a nonsense text. āItās not Latin, though it looks like it, and it actually says nothing,āĀ Before & AfterĀ magazineĀ answered a curious reader, āIts āwordsā loosely approximate the frequency with which letters occur in English, which is why at a glance it looks pretty real.ā
As Cicero would put it um, not so fast. The placeholder text, beginning with the lineĀ āLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elitā, looks like Latin because in its youth, centuries ago, it was Latin. Itās difficult to find examples ofĀ lorem ipsumĀ in use before Letraset made it popular as a dummy text in the 1960s, although McClintock says he remembers coming across.
There wasĀ that timeĀ artists at Sequence opted to hand-Sharpie theĀ lorem ipsumĀ passage on a line of paper bags they designed for Chipotleāthe result being a mixture of avant-garde, inside joke, and Sharpie-stained tables. Those with an eye for detail may have caught a tribute to the classic text in an episode ofĀ Mad Men (S6E1 around 1:18:55 for anyone that didnāt).
Second, useĀ lorem ipsumĀ if you think the placeholder text will be too distracting. For specific projects, collaboration between copywriters and designers may be best, however, like Karen McGrane said, draft copy has a way of turning any meeting about layout decisions into a discussion about word choice. So donāt be afraid to useĀ lorem ipsumĀ to keep everyone focused.
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Of course, weād be remiss not to include the veritable cadre ofĀ lorem ipsumĀ knock offs featuring:
Bacon IpsumĀ ā Served all day. āBacon ipsum dolor amet chicken turducken spare ribs.ā
Hipster IpsumĀ ā In case youāre in need of a āshoreditch direct trade four dollar toast copper mug.ā
Corporate IpsumĀ ā āLeveraging agile frameworks to provide a robust synopsisā from eight to five.
Legal IpsumĀ ā Fully unlicensed legalese for those times you donāt want to pay $400/hr.