Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Ever wondered what that text is all about? I sort of knew but I’m a geek’s geek and like to find this stuff out. Fortunately, Laura Robinson pointed me to this explanation in a Microsoft KB article. 

Although the phrase is nonsense, it does have a long history. The phrase has been used for several centuries by typographers to show the most distinctive features of their fonts. It is used because the letters involved and the letter spacing in those combinations reveal, at their best, the weight, design, and other important features of the typeface.
A 1994 issue of "Before & After" magazine traces "Lorem ipsum ..." to a jumbled Latin version of a passage from de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, a treatise on the theory of ethics written by Cicero in 45 B.C. The passage "Lorem ipsum ..." is taken from text that reads, "Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit ...," which translates as, "There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."
During the 1500s, a printer adapted Cicero's text to develop a page of type samples. Since then, the Latin-like text has been the printing industry's standard for fake, or dummy, text. Before electronic publishing, graphic designers had to mock up layouts by drawing in squiggled lines to indicate text. The advent of self-adhesive sheets preprinted with "Lorem ipsum" gave a more realistic way to indicate where text would go on a page.

Excellent, another mystery solved. Move along now please :)

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 25, 2008
  ...and if you want to generate some "Lorem ipsum" text for a web page, document, etc., go to http://www.lipsum.com/.  You can specify how many bytes, words, or paragraphs you need. And, no, I'm not affiliated with that site whatsoever.

• Anonymous
  August 26, 2008
  great - thanks for the link steve

• Anonymous
  August 26, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 27, 2008
  The comment has been removed