What is Lorem Ipsum?
Lorem Ipsum is placeholder text used by designers, developers and publishers to fill a layout before the real content is ready. It looks like readable text, with words and sentences of natural length, but it has no meaning, so reviewers focus on fonts, spacing and layout instead of reading the words. It has been the printing industry's standard dummy text since at least the 1500s, when an unknown printer scrambled a passage to make a type specimen book.
How to generate placeholder text
- Choose how much you need: a number of paragraphs, sentences or words.
- Keep the classic opening "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet…" or untick it for completely random text.
- Tick Wrap paragraphs in <p> tags if you are pasting into HTML.
- Click Generate for new text, then copy it.
Where does the text come from?
The words come from De finibus bonorum et malorum ("On the Ends of Good and Evil"), a Latin work on ethics written by the Roman philosopher Cicero in 45 BC. The famous phrase "dolorem ipsum" means "pain itself". The standard Lorem Ipsum passage takes words from section 1.10.32 and 1.10.33, cuts some of them in half and mixes them, so it is no longer real Latin.
Tips for using dummy text
- Match real lengths: if real product descriptions will be about 40 words, test with 40 words. Overly short or long placeholders hide layout problems.
- Replace it before launch: search your website for "lorem" before publishing. Pages with placeholder text look unfinished, confuse visitors and can be treated as low-quality content by search engines and ad networks.
- Use realistic content when possible: for important pages such as the home page, early drafts of the real text lead to better design decisions.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lorem Ipsum copyrighted?
No. It is based on a 2,000-year-old text and is free to use anywhere.
Why not just write "text text text"?
Repeated words create unnatural patterns. Lorem Ipsum has realistic word and sentence lengths, so the layout looks like the finished page.
Can I get placeholder images too?
Yes, use the Placeholder Image Generator.