A standard practice in graphic design, and one that most designers cherish due to the freedom that it gives the design process, is the usage of so-called meaningless text during preliminary phases of page layouts that stands in lieu for the actual text with which it is meant to be replaced at later stages. The text most commonly used for such purposes is the famed ‘Lorem Ipsum’ compilation that has been the typesetting industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
Although used as a placeholder Lorem Ipsum is not random text. Instead, it has its roots in classical Latin literature, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, ‘consectetur,’ from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the source: Lorem Ipsum comes from ‘de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum’ (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC.
Although used as a placeholder Lorem Ipsum is not random text. Instead, it has its roots in classical Latin literature, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, ‘consectetur,’ from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the source: Lorem Ipsum comes from ‘de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum’ (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC.
