''Lorem ipsum'' ( ) is a dummy or placeholder text commonly used in graphic design, publishing, and web development. Its purpose is to permit a page layout to be designed, independently of the copy that will subsequently populate it, or to demonstrate various

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

s of a

typeface A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...

without meaningful text that could be distracting. ''Lorem ipsum'' is typically a corrupted version of , a 1st-century BC text by the Roman statesman and philosopher

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, with words altered, added, and removed to make it nonsensical and improper

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. The first two words are the

truncation In mathematics and computer science, truncation is limiting the number of digits right of the decimal point. Truncation and floor function Truncation of positive real numbers can be done using the floor function. Given a number x \in \mathbb ...

of ("pain itself"). Versions of the ''Lorem ipsum'' text have been used in

typesetting Typesetting is the composition of text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other ...

since the 1960s, when advertisements for

Letraset Letraset was a company known mainly for manufacturing sheets of typefaces and other artwork elements using the dry-transfer lettering method. Letraset was acquired by the Colart group and became part of its subsidiary Winsor & Newton. C ...

transfer sheets popularized it. ''Lorem ipsum'' was introduced to the digital world in the mid-1980s, when Aldus employed it in graphic and word-processing templates for its desktop publishing program

PageMaker Aldus PageMaker (later Adobe PageMaker) is a desktop publishing computer program introduced in 1985 by the Aldus Corporation on the Apple Macintosh. The combination of the Macintosh's graphical user interface, PageMaker publishing software, and t ...

. Other popular

word processors A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...

, including Pages and

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor program, word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platf ...

, have since adopted ''Lorem ipsum'', as have many

LaTeX Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latices are found in nature, but synthetic latices are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a wikt:milky, milky fluid, which is present in 10% of all floweri ...

packages, web content managers such as Joomla! and

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

, and CSS libraries such as Semantic UI.

Example text

A common form of ''Lorem ipsum'' reads:

Source text

The ''Lorem ipsum'' text is derived from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of

's . The physical source may have been the 1914

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...

edition of , where the Latin text, presented on the left-hand (even) pages, breaks off on page 34 with "" and continues on page 36 with "," suggesting that the galley type of that page was mixed up to make the dummy text seen today. The discovery of the text's origin is attributed to Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar at

Hampden–Sydney College Hampden–Sydney College (H-SC) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Men's colleges in the United States, college for men in Hampden Sydney, Virginia. Founded in 1775, it is the oldest privatel ...

. McClintock connected ''Lorem ipsum'' to Cicero's writing sometime before 1982 while searching for instances of the Latin word , which was rarely used in classical literature. McClintock first published his discovery in a 1994 letter to a ''Before & After'' magazine editor,''Before & After'' 4:2, according to contesting the editor's earlier claim that ''Lorem ipsum'' had no meaning. The relevant section of Cicero as printed in the source is reproduced below with fragments used in ''Lorem ipsum'' highlighted. Letters in brackets were added to ''Lorem ipsum'' and were not present in the source text: What follows is H. Rackham's translation, as printed in the 1914 Loeb edition, with words at least partially represented in ''Lorem ipsum'' highlighted:

References

External links

* The original ''De finibus bonorum et malorum'' (Book 1) from Cicero, on Latin Wikisource {{Typography terms Filler text Latin words and phrases Nonsense Cicero

Example text

Source text

See also

References

External links