What is Lorem ipsum?

Lorem ipsum is a placeholder (dummy) text used to prototype layouts, typography, and components before real content is available. It lets designers and engineers separate visual and structural decisions from editorial decisions, so spacing, rhythm, and responsiveness can be validated without cognitive bias from meaningful words.

• Use it to: test grids, line-length, line-height, font pairing, component breakpoints, and content flow.
• Don’t use it to: validate tone, clarity, conversion copy, or compliance language (you need real copy for that).

History and origin

The text commonly known as “Lorem ipsum” is derived—via truncation and scrambling—from Cicero’s 45 BCE work “De finibus bonorum et malorum.” Commercial use surged in the 1960s with Letraset transfer sheets, then spread widely in the 1980s through desktop publishing templates (e.g., Aldus PageMaker). It later appeared in word processors, CMS themes, and UI kits, becoming the de facto filler for Latin-script layouts.

The phrase “Lorem ipsum” is generally considered a clipping of “dolorem ipsum” (“pain itself”). Modern variants intentionally corrupt grammar and word order to avoid conveying meaningful Latin.

Why teams still use it

• Decouples layout from meaning: prevents early feedback from fixating on copy instead of hierarchy and spacing.
• Normalizes texture: approximates word/letter frequency of Latin-script languages to represent realistic text color (visual density) on a page.
• Enables faster iteration: allows early, repeatable tests of typographic scale, vertical rhythm, and scroll behavior.

When not to use it

Use real content—or realistic domain text—when any of the following are true:

• You’re validating UX copy (labels, errors, onboarding, pricing).
• Legal/compliance text is required (privacy, consent, regulated industries).
• Localization affects layout (e.g., CJK, RTL, long German compounds).
• Accessibility reviews are in scope (screen reader behavior, language detection).
• Analytics, SEO, or preview cards will be crawled or shared publicly.

Accessibility and i18n considerations

• Language metadata: If placeholder text must be read by assistive tech, wrap it in an element with lang="la" to hint pronunciation. If the text is purely decorative, mark it aria-hidden="true"—but only when it conveys no information.
• Repetition fatigue: Large, repeated gibberish blocks can degrade screen reader experience; prefer short, varied samples or hide decorative fillers.
• Contrast and focus: Placeholder text should not be styled in a way that reduces contrast required for readability testing.
• RTL and CJK: Latin-centric filler won’t expose bidirectional or glyph metrics issues. For Arabic/Hebrew, test with RTL content. For CJK, use language-appropriate placeholder text to validate line breaking and kinsoku rules.
• Truncation and overflow: Use realistic long words and mixed scripts to expose line-wrapping, ellipsis, and overflow clipping.

Practical usage guidelines

• Length targeting: Match expected word counts (e.g., microcopy 4–12 words, paragraphs 60–120 words) to verify line length (45–75 characters per line is a common reading comfort range).
• Variation: Mix sentence lengths and punctuation to simulate natural rhythm and hyphenation.
• Content tokens: In design systems, expose tokens like --placeholder-text-short, --placeholder-text-long, and --placeholder-heading to standardize samples across components.
• Environments: Ensure placeholder content appears only in development/staging. Add build checks to fail if “lorem ipsum” ships to production.

Pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Shipping placeholder text: Add CI rules that search for “lorem”/“ipsum” and break the build when found in production bundles or templates.
• False positives in tests: If tests assert against placeholder strings, they may become brittle. Prefer test IDs or structural assertions.
• Misleading approvals: Stakeholders may approve visual hierarchy but later reject final copy that changes density. Reduce risk by swapping in real draft copy as early as possible.

Alternatives to Lorem ipsum

• Domain-realistic placeholders: Use archived or anonymized text from your domain (e.g., blog intros, product blurbs).
• Language-specific fillers:
  • CJK: language-appropriate filler to test line breaking and punctuation rules.
  • RTL: Arabic/Hebrew text to verify bidi handling and glyph shaping.
• Pangrams: Useful for type specimen (e.g., “The quick brown fox…”). Not a substitute for paragraph testing.
• Themed generators: “Bacon Ipsum,” “Corporate Ipsum,” etc.—fun but best kept to internal demos.
• Content skeletons: Use meaningful headings with short neutral body text to reduce cognitive noise while keeping structure realistic.

Example paragraphs

A medium paragraph (approx. 80–100 words) to assess line-length and rhythm:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer in commodo nibh. Sed vitae sem fermentum, posuere metus a, malesuada lacus. Quisque dictum, arcu a hendrerit consequat, leo dui ultricies est, sed lobortis massa neque non nisi. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Proin sed feugiat justo. Aliquam erat volutpat. Donec a luctus erat, quis aliquet orci. Duis viverra, nunc a placerat aliquam, sapien lorem cursus ipsum, at facilisis velit arcu in lectus.

A short paragraph (approx. 40–60 words) for cards or teasers:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse vitae augue vehicula, condimentum odio ut, sodales urna. Donec pulvinar, velit at euismod suscipit, lacus nunc blandit risus, a faucibus massa arcu et nunc.

Bullet-style snippets for lists and empty states:

• Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
• Curabitur non risus nec magna iaculis placerat.
• Vivamus posuere sapien et urna congue, nec dictum leo pretium.

Estimating length and reading time

• Rough words from characters: words ≈ characters / 5 (English-like text).
• Approximate reading time: minutes ≈ words / 200 (average adult silent reading).

Use these only to size blocks; always validate with real copy before release.

SEO and analytics hygiene

• Exclude from indexing: Apply noindex/nofollow to non-production environments and preview routes.
• Share cards: Prevent Open Graph/Twitter cards from exposing placeholder text.
• Sitemaps: Don’t include placeholder pages in production sitemaps.

Team checklist

Do:

• Replace placeholder text with draft content before usability testing.
• Set lang appropriately or hide decorative filler from assistive tech.
• Add CI checks to prevent “lorem ipsum” in production.

Don’t:

• Approve critical flows (checkout, consent) with placeholder copy.
• Rely on Latin filler for non-Latin layouts.
• Use placeholders in analytics experiments or A/B tests.

Example Latin passage

A canonical block often used for typography specimens:

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.

Math demo (typography rendering)

The following formula is included to exercise math rendering in layouts: