What is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem Ipsum is simply false text used in typesetting and layout before printing. Lorem Ipsum has been the standard false text in printing since the 1500s, when an anonymous printer assembled pieces of text together to make a specimen book of text fonts. It has not only survived five centuries, but has also been adapted to computerized office automation, without any change to its content. It was popularized in the 1960s by the sale of Letraset sheets containing passages from Lorem Ipsum, and more recently by its inclusion in text layout applications such as Aldus PageMaker.

Where does it come from?

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has its roots in a work of classical Latin literature dating back to 45 BC, making it 2,000 years old. A professor at Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia, took one of the most obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a passage in Lorem Ipsum, and by studying all the uses of this word in classical literature, discovered the undeniable source of Lorem Ipsum. It actually comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of Cicero's "De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (Of the Supreme Goods and the Supreme Evils). This work, very popular during the Renaissance, is a treatise on the theory of ethics. The first lines of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...", come from section 1.10.32.

The standard extract from Lorem Ipsum used since the 16th century is reproduced below for the curious. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of Cicero's "De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" are also reproduced in their original version, accompanied by the English translation by H. Rackham (1914).

Why use it?

It's long been known that working with legible, meaningful text is distracting, and prevents you from concentrating on the layout itself. The advantage of Lorem Ipsum over generic text such as 'Text. Text. Du texte.' is that its letter distribution is more or less normal, and in any case comparable with that of standard French. Many page-layout software suites and website editors have made Lorem Ipsum their default false text, and a search for 'Lorem Ipsum' will lead you to many sites that are still in the construction phase. Several versions have appeared over time, sometimes by accident, often intentionally (to add little winks, or even embarrassing phrases).

Where can I get some?

Many variations of Lorem Ipsum can be found here and there, but most of them have been altered by the addition of humor or random words that don't resemble standard text for a second. If you want to use a passage from Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure that there's nothing embarrassing hidden in the text. All Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to reproduce the same excerpt endlessly, which makes lipsum.com the only true Lorem Ipsum generator. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, in combination with various sentence structures, to generate a flawless Lorem Ipsum. The resulting Lorem Ipsum contains no repetition, no outlandish words, and no hints of humor.