Lorem ipsum

"Ipsum" redirects here. For the car, see Toyota Ipsum.

Using Lorem ipsum to focus attention on graphic elements in a webpage design proposal

An example of the Lorem ipsum placeholder text on a Letraset sample sheet. Date unknown, possibly 1970s.

In publishing and graphic design, Lorem ipsum (/ˌlɔː.rəm ˈɪp.səm/ LOR-əm IP-səm) is a placeholder text commonly used to demonstrate the visual form of a document or a typeface without relying on meaningful content. Lorem ipsum may be used as a placeholder before the final copy is available. It is also used to temporarily replace text in a process called greeking, which allows designers to consider the form of a webpage or publication, without the meaning of the text influencing the design.

Lorem ipsum is typically a corrupted version of De finibus bonorum et malorum, a 1st-century BC text by the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero, with words altered, added, and removed to make it nonsensical and improper Latin. The first two words themselves are a truncation of dolorem ipsum ("pain itself").

Versions of the Lorem ipsum text have been used in typesetting at least since the 1960s, when it was popularized by advertisements for Letraset transfer sheets. 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. Other popular word processors, including Pages and Microsoft Word, have since adopted Lorem ipsum, as have many LaTeX packages, web content managers such as Joomla! and WordPress, and CSS libraries such as Semantic UI.

Example text

A common form of Lorem ipsum reads: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum. Nam quam nunc, blandit vel, luctus pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas nec odio et ante tincidunt tempus. Donec vitae sapien ut libero venenatis faucibus. Nullam quis ante. Etiam sit amet orci eget eros faucibus tincidunt. Duis leo. Sed fringilla mauris sit amet nibh. Donec sodales sagittis magna. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit cursus nunc, quis gravida magna mi a libero. Fusce vulputate eleifend sapien. Vestibulum purus quam, scelerisque ut, mollis sed, nonummy id, metus. Nullam accumsan lorem in dui. Cras ultricies mi eu turpis hendrerit fringilla. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; In ac dui quis mi consectetuer lacinia. Nam pretium turpis et arcu. Duis arcu tortor, suscipit eget, imperdiet nec, imperdiet iaculis, ipsum. Sed aliquam ultrices mauris. Integer ante arcu, accumsan a, consectetuer eget, posuere ut, mauris. Praesent adipiscing. Phasellus ullamcorper ipsum rutrum nunc. Nunc nonummy metus. Vestibulum volutpat pretium libero. Cras id dui. Aenean ut eros et nisl sagittis vestibulum. Nullam nulla eros, ultricies sit amet, nonummy id, imperdiet feugiat, pede. Sed lectus. Donec mollis hendrerit risus. Phasellus nec sem in justo pellentesque facilisis. Etiam imperdiet imperdiet orci. Nunc nec neque. Phasellus leo dolor, tempus non, auctor et, hendrerit quis, nisi. Curabitur ligula sapien, tincidunt non, euismod vitae, posuere imperdiet, leo. Maecenas malesuada. Praesent congue erat at massa. Sed cursus turpis vitae tortor. Donec posuere vulputate arcu. Aenean posuere, tortor sed cursus feugiat, nunc augue blandit nunc, eu sollicitudin urna dolor sagittis lacus. Donec elit libero, sodales nec, volutpat a, suscipit non, turpis. Nullam sagittis. Suspendisse pulvinar, augue ac venenatis condimentum, sem libero volutpat nibh, nec pellentesque velit pede quis nunc. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Fusce id purus. Ut varius tincidunt libero. Phasellus dolor. Maecenas vestibulum mollis. It roughly translates to: The customer should be very happy, he is a good customer. Aenean's advantage is that he needs pain. Jasmine mass. Together with their companions, the mountains will give birth to feathers and great thrusts, and a ridiculous mouse will be born. Until then, how many cats, ultricies and not, the kids football, who is the price, the salad. There is no mass effect for anyone. Until the foot just, fringilla or, aliquet nor, vulputate needs, arcu. For in the just, the rhoncus, as, imperdiet from, the poison of life, just. There is no such thing as a soft-footed soccer ball. Complete keyboard. Tomorrow protein. The living element is always excepted. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean Leo ligula, porttitor eu, the result of life, eleifend and, for Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. There is no such thing as a fear of the casino laoreet. Everyone's makeup. Aeneas will invest. Even if you don't advertise it. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies unless. For God needs it. Even CNN. Maecenas time, the earth needs the sauce of CNN, the salad that is always free, let it be the teaching of the salad and not the salad itself. For what now, flatters or, mourns the pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas did not hate and before tincidunt time. Until the wisdom of life to free the poison throat. No one before. It is also important to treat the eros of the throat. Two times. But it's fun to be funny. Until the members of the great arrows. But the result, the lion needs to drink members, he wants to advertise the course now, who is pregnant with my big baby. Fusce vulputate eleifend sapien. It is pure, like chocolate, soft but, nonummy it, fear. There is no layer of web in the world. Tomorrow ultricies mi eu turpis hendrerit fringilla. To lay before him first in the throats of the hospital, the beds of care, In ac dui quis mi consectetuer lacinia. For the price of the high school and the bow. Duis bow tortor, he receives what he needs, he does not invest, he invests with the targets, himself. But it's a bit of a joke. Integer before the arc, accumsan a, consectetuer eget, to put as, mauris. It's coaching. The ship is now in full swing. Now the fear of nonnummy. Free weekend shopping. I will give it to you tomorrow. Aenean as eros and nisles sagittis vestibulum. There is no eros, no ultricies should be amet, nonummy id, imperdiet feugiat, pede. But the bed Until the soft smile of Hendrerit. The boat and the sea in just the easy kids. Even the financing of the financing of the clinic. Now neither. The ship is a pain in the ass, not the time, but the author and the office. Curabitur ligula sapien, tincidunt non, euismod vitae, putuere investment, leo. Maecenas expected. It was a lot of homework. But the course of the high school life is a torture. Don't put a vulputate bow. Aenean poses, torture but the course of Feugiat, now the augury flatters now, eu sollicitudin urna dolor sagittis lacus. Until the team is free, the members are not, the weekend is, it is not accepted, it is ugly. No arrows. Suspended pillow, propagandist and venomous sauce, sem libero volutpat nibh, no pellentesque wants to walk now. To lay before him first in the throats of the hospital, the beds of care, Let it be clear. As a free casino game. Boat pain. Maecenas is a soft vestibule.

Source text

The Lorem ipsum text is derived from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum. The physical source may have been the 1914 Loeb Classical Library edition of De finibus, where the Latin text, presented on the left-hand (even) pages, breaks off on page 34 with "Neque porro quisquam est qui do-" and continues on page 36 with "lorem ipsum ...", 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. McClintock connected Lorem ipsum to Cicero's writing sometime before 1982 while searching for instances of the Latin word consectetur, which was rarely used in classical literature. McClintock first published his discovery in a 1994 letter to the editor of Before & After magazine, contesting the editor's earlier claim that Lorem ipsum held 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:

[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[d] exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? [D]Quis autem vel eum i[r]ure 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 reru[d]um facilis est e[r]t 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 repellend[a]us. 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.

What follows is H. Rackham's translation, as printed in the 1914 Loeb edition, with words at least partially represented in Lorem ipsum highlighted:

[32] But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of reprobating pleasure and extolling pain arose. To do so, 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.

See also

• Asemic writing – Wordless open semantic form of writing
• Etaoin shrdlu – Common metal-type printing error
• Gibberish – Nonsensical speech or writing
• Hamburgevons – Text used as a sample for assessing fonts
• Indian-head test pattern – Television test card
• Lenna – Unauthorized standard test image
• Li Europan lingues – Placeholder text in Interlingue
• Metasyntactic variable – Placeholder term used in computer science
• Pangram – Sentence using every letter of alphabet
  • The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog – Sentence containing all letters of the English alphabet
• Shibboleth – Custom or tradition that distinguishes one group from another
• "To come" – Phrase used in publishing to indicate missing material
• Utah teapot – Computer graphics 3D reference and test model

External links

• The original De finibus bonorum et malorum (Book 1) from Cicero, on Latin Wikisource