In publishing and graphic design, lorem ipsum is a filler text commonly used to demonstrate
the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation.
Replacing meaningful content that could be distracting with placeholder text may allow
viewers to focus on graphic aspects such as font, typography, and page layout.
The lorem ipsum text is typically a scrambled section of De finibus bonorum et malorum,
a 1st-century BC Latin text by Cicero, with words altered, added, and removed such that
it is nonsensical, improper Latin.
A variation of the ordinary lorem ipsum text has been used in typesetting since the 1960s
or earlier, when it was popularized by advertisements for Letraset transfer sheets.
It was introduced to the Information Age in the mid-1980s by Aldus Corporation, which
employed it in graphics and word processing templates for its desktop publishing program,
PageMaker, for the Apple Macintosh.
Example text A common form of lorem ipsum reads:
Another version uses the word "adipisici" rather than "adipisicing".
Others include additional words to add variety and prevent repeated verses from word-wrapping
on the same phrases.
Discovery "Lorem ipsum" text is derived from sections
1.10.32–3 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum.
The original passage began: Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet
consectetur adipisci velit.
It is not known exactly when the text acquired its current standard form; it may have been
as late as the 1960s.
Dr. Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar who was the publications director at Hampden-Sydney
College in Virginia, discovered the source of the passage sometime before 1982 while
searching for instances of the Latin word "consectetur", rarely used in classical literature.
The physical source of the Lorem Ipsum text may be the 1914 Loeb Classical Library Edition
of the De Finibus, where the Latin text finishes page 34 with "Neque porro quisquam est qui
do-" and begins page 36 with "lorem ipsum…", suggesting that the galley type of that page
was scrambled to make the dummy text seen today.
Latin source The original version appears in the 1914 Loeb
Classical Library Edition of the De Finibus, Book 1, sections 32–3:
[32] 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?
[33] At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium
voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati
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…
English translation H. Rackham's 1914 translation – in the aforementioned
Loeb Classical Library edition – with the major source of lorem ipsum highlighted:
[32] But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing of a 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 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?
[33] 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 untrammeled 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.
Variations
Today's popular version of Lorem ipsum was first created in the mid-1980s for Aldus Corporation's
breakthrough desktop publishing program PageMaker for the Apple Macintosh.
Aldus adapted older forms of the lorem text from typography samples to use in PageMaker's
graphics and word processing templates.
Nowadays a variety of software, including text editors and plug-ins, can generate semi-random
"lorem-like text", which often has little or nothing in common with the canonical adaptations
other than looking like jumbled Latin.
Apple's Pages and Keynote software employ such jumbled text as sample screenplay layout.
Lorem ipsum is also featured on Joomla! and WordPress web content managers.
Microsoft Office Word 2007, 2010 and 2013 have a Lorem ipsum feature.
Adobe Dreamweaver offers a "Lorem and More" extension for inserting "lorem text" into
web pages.
Cicero's first Oration against Catiline — Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia
nostra?
Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet?… — is sometimes used in type specimens.
See also Asemic writing
etaoin shrdlu Filler text
Greeking Li Europan lingues
List of Latin phrases Metasyntactic variable
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog Notes
References
External links The original De finibus bonorum et malorum
from Cicero, on Latin WikiSource.