Lorem Ipsum

Lorem Ipsum has become simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

Lorem Ipsum has become simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry and has been so ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

The Standard Phrase

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.”

It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

The Usefulness

Dummy text is also used to demonstrate the appearance of different typefaces and layouts, and in general the content of dummy text is nonsensical.

Due to its widespread use as filler text for layouts, non-readability is of great importance: human perception is tuned to recognize certain patterns and repetitions in texts.

If the distribution of letters and ‘words’ is random, the reader will not be distracted from making a neutral judgement on the visual impact and readability of the typefaces (typography), or the distribution of text on the page (layout or type area).

For this reason, dummy text usually consists of a more or less random series of words or syllables. This prevents repetitive patterns from impairing the overall visual impression and facilitates the comparison of different typefaces. Furthermore, it is advantageous when the dummy text is relatively realistic so that the layout impression of the final publication is not compromised.

The Origins

Lorem ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Marcus Tullius Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance.

The passage lorem ipsum is taken from text that reads “Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit …” which roughly translates as “There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain…”

“Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit. -> There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain.”
– Marcus Tullius Cicero

In (Original) Latin Language

“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 velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt 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? At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio cumque nihil impedit quo minus id quod maxime placeat facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat.”
– Marcus Tullius Cicero

English Translation

“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, but because occasionally 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 is 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.”
– Marcus Tullius Cicero

Need Your Own?

There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don’t look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a passage of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn’t anything embarrassing hidden in the middle of text.

All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making lipsum.com the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humour, or non-characteristic words etc.

Lorem Ipsum (by lipsum.com)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc at arcu ultricies, tristique neque eu, tempus arcu. Etiam dictum pellentesque justo. Duis id ex non magna rutrum egestas facilisis nec velit. Donec dapibus interdum orci vel condimentum. Integer sed odio et mi auctor pulvinar. Quisque sagittis turpis ligula, at malesuada ligula dignissim eget. Mauris sollicitudin ullamcorper tellus, eu posuere lectus pellentesque vel. Sed a est vel nulla ultrices ultrices sed eu erat. Nunc lectus purus, ultricies a purus condimentum, sollicitudin volutpat nisi. In in varius lacus. Integer bibendum turpis erat, in auctor magna bibendum at. Pellentesque fringilla ex id massa dignissim, vitae placerat eros aliquet. Vivamus orci sem, facilisis ut turpis id, maximus interdum eros. Sed aliquam leo nec odio volutpat auctor.

In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nam congue mi in sapien dictum dapibus. Cras vel orci in libero consequat tincidunt ac in nulla. Etiam et fringilla lacus. Integer eu sodales nunc. Donec vel laoreet massa, vel commodo lorem. Vestibulum eget erat suscipit, interdum elit quis, mollis tortor. Donec elementum diam vitae commodo feugiat. Maecenas ac molestie massa. Fusce nec ex nisi. Morbi tincidunt pharetra nunc. Praesent at pretium metus, eu aliquet odio. Ut vel posuere velit. Vestibulum eu est eu arcu eleifend vestibulum nec at lectus.

Ut ut diam nisi. Mauris eget ante non arcu tincidunt vehicula. Duis sit amet sollicitudin felis. Morbi tincidunt mattis iaculis. Aliquam erat volutpat. Fusce sagittis, lacus id bibendum semper, lectus tortor sollicitudin lacus, nec tempus dolor lorem sit amet turpis. Sed semper neque in nulla viverra tempus. Sed fringilla neque nunc, in ornare elit auctor non. Proin vitae libero fermentum, sagittis nisl a, pretium tellus. Phasellus viverra dignissim accumsan. Proin faucibus egestas nibh ac viverra. Suspendisse lacinia nunc sit amet mauris fringilla, sollicitudin posuere ex ornare.

Mauris libero ipsum, feugiat quis enim non, sodales efficitur libero. Cras eget turpis a erat euismod sollicitudin. Proin volutpat consectetur eros et varius. Curabitur pellentesque eros ex, non cursus nibh congue non. Pellentesque vitae varius nunc, eget vulputate risus. Nulla nec mollis odio. Sed tempor nibh massa, a pharetra urna pretium non. Nulla in consequat sapien. Phasellus semper volutpat vehicula. Maecenas congue iaculis tempus. Suspendisse pharetra egestas ullamcorper. Nullam erat turpis, tincidunt in vestibulum nec, scelerisque in purus.

Pellentesque efficitur efficitur urna, et fermentum leo hendrerit in. Suspendisse non ipsum imperdiet, pulvinar magna at, cursus nulla. Proin posuere tempus ipsum, a ultrices purus porta a. Suspendisse dapibus augue vitae libero pretium eleifend. Fusce vehicula interdum nibh, vel imperdiet nisi. In sit amet magna vel orci ultrices laoreet eget non leo. Suspendisse eget lacinia arcu. Etiam finibus rutrum iaculis. Proin imperdiet finibus enim ac vehicula. Etiam nulla urna, finibus vitae risus vel, consectetur mattis erat. Curabitur non massa dictum, malesuada nunc et, ullamcorper tortor. Donec in nunc at arcu ornare porta sit amet porta lectus.

Samuel L. Ipsum is a Lorem Ipsum generator, it uses quotes from films which Samuel L. Jackson has starred in place of the standard ipsum text. So, of course, you may always turn to this legendary Lorem Ipsum generator where you may choose from “Classic Ipsum”, “Slipsum Classic” and “Slipsum Lite”. Enjoy especially the second one.

For more modest issues, try one of these random sample dummy text generators either in MS Word or in your text editor.

Generate Dummy Text Into Microsoft Word
Generate Lorum Ipsum Within Your Text Editor

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