Sounds like Latin, right? Well, it is—sort of. “Lorem ipsum” is the beginning of a pseudo-Latin text passage that is widely used by designers as a type of placeholder for text. In other words, it is “dummy text” that is intended to be replaced with actual content and allows the designer to envision what the page will look like with text in the proper places. In the world of graphic design, this is referred to as “greeking.” By using this “filler” text, designers can review the layout of the publication without being distracted by the actual text. It can also help when content is late in coming.

While there are some recognizable Latin words in the “lorem ipsum” passage, the meaning is pure gibberish and is complete with partial phrases and words that are not even near to anything in Latin. Various theories abound on its origin. A clue to its first use comes from the fact that this passage, or something similar to it, has been in use since the 1500’s. It most likely came to be when a printer needed to produce something with samples of text and picked up a selection of metal type. He then inserted them into the printing press in somewhat random order and printed away.

Its popularity was cemented in modern times, however. When Aldus began selling the desktop publishing program, PageMaker, it included the “lorem ipsum” text as a sample dummy text. It began to be used extensively and, well the rest is history. It is now the most commonly used dummy text in the industry.

Want to use “lorem ipsum” in your own newsletter design? Look no further. You can find the complete text by clicking on lorem ipsum. There are numerous variations to be found on the Internet. However, take care to check out your sources. People have been known to insert humorous, or even risqué, additions into the filler text.

To get a complete version of this dummy text, visit our version at lorem ipsum. To generate your own version of lorem ipsum, visit lipsum.com. Here you can customize the dummy text to fill in any size space you'd like.

If you are interested in a more modern form of filler text to use in your document, check out these examples of variations on the “greeking” concept:

http://www.lemurzone.com/notes/greeking.htm

http://www.duckisland.com/GreekMachine.asp

http://www.captaincursor.com/code/dreamweaver/lorum_ipsum/