Printers in the 1500s scrambled the words from Cicero’s “De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” after mixing the words in each sentence. The familiar “lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” text emerged when 16th-century printers adapted Cicero’s original work, beginning with the phrase “dolor sit amet consectetur.”
They abbreviated “dolorem” (meaning “pain”) to “lorem,” which carries no meaning in Latin. “Ipsum” translates to “itself,” and the text frequently includes phrases such as “consectetur adipiscing elit” and “ut labore et dolore.” These Latin fragments, derived from Cicero’s philosophical treatise, were rearranged to create the standard dummy text that has become a fundamental tool in design and typography across generations.
The short answer is that lorem ipsum text doesn’t actually “say” anything meaningful. It’s deliberately scrambled Latin that doesn’t form coherent sentences. While it comes from Cicero’s “De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum,” the text has been modified so extensively that it’s nonsensical.
Why scrambled text? That’s exactly the point. By using text that’s unreadable but maintains the general pattern of regular writing — including normal word length, spacing, and punctuation — designers can focus on the visual elements of a layout without the actual content getting in the way. The pseudo-Latin appearance gives it a natural feel while ensuring it won’t distract from the design itself.
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If everyone used the identical lorem ipsum copy, search engines would flag it for plagiarism and downgrade the site for its lack of helpful content for the reader. However, when you send sample layouts filled with fun lorem ipsum to your customers, they will focus on the look and feel of the page instead of digging into and arguing about the content. Nevertheless, lorem ipsum generators do not spew a random bank of words and paragraphs.
Dummy text sections filled with fun lorem ipsum make it easier to swap out one web page, letter, or email version with another. For example, in a Mailchimp bulk email campaign, send these multiple versions during A/B testing to discover which call to action garners the desired response.
In addition, placeholder text stands out when eyeballed, ensuring that you overwrite the correct paragraphs before updating and reissuing past appeals. Your lorem ipsum generator can also provide multiple versions of a section of text on a single page surrounding the real test message.
When your page includes dedicated advertising and editorial slots that do not vary from issue to issue, using dummy copy allows you to preserve the total possible letter or word count. Blocking out that space in your Mailchimp wireframe or mockup ahead of time will enable you to create banners, buttons, and headers to help announce and maintain your brand and highlight the page or email’s flavor or “voice.”
