Quick answer: Lorem Ipsum is scrambled, Latin-looking placeholder text used to fill a design before the real words are ready. It’s adapted from a passage in Cicero’s De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (45 BC), but it has been cut up and altered so much that it doesn’t mean anything.
Designers use it because it looks like real text without inviting anyone to read it. You can make as much as you need with a free Lorem Ipsum generator.
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit” is one of the most recognisable lines in design, and almost none of it means anything. It isn’t gibberish invented from nothing, though — it has a real classical source, and a specific job it still does better than most alternatives.
What does Lorem Ipsum mean?
Nothing, as it’s used today. The standard passage begins:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Some words are real Latin (dolor means “pain”, labore “work”, magna “great”), but the sentence has been chopped and rearranged so that it isn’t grammatical. “Lorem” isn’t a Latin word at all: it’s the tail end of dolorem, cut in half.
Where does Lorem Ipsum come from?
The source was pinned down by Latin scholar Richard McClintock, who tracked the unusual word consectetur through classical literature and wrote about the find in 1994. It comes from sections 1.10.32–33 of De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (“On the Ends of Good and Evil”), a work of philosophy Cicero wrote in 45 BC. The original sentence reads, in part:
Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit…
“Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain…”
So “dolorem ipsum” — “pain itself” — became “Lorem ipsum”, and the rest was shuffled, trimmed and padded with invented words.
Has it really been used since the 1500s?
You’ll see the claim everywhere that an unknown printer scrambled the passage in the 1500s to make a type specimen book. As far as anyone has been able to show, there’s no evidence for it. The earliest confirmed uses date from the 1960s, when Letraset — the company behind rub-on transfer lettering — used Lorem Ipsum on its type sheets and in advertising. Researchers have also noted that a 1914 edition of Cicero’s text happens to split dolorem across a page break at exactly the right spot, which hints the text was put together from a modern printed edition rather than in the Renaissance.
What’s certain is how it became universal: in the 1980s, Aldus PageMaker, one of the first desktop-publishing programs, shipped with Lorem Ipsum in its templates, and from there it spread into design software and web development generally.
Why designers still use Lorem Ipsum
- It looks like text without being read as text. Readable placeholder copy pulls the eye into reading it, which is exactly the wrong reaction when people are supposed to be judging font, line length, spacing and hierarchy. Lorem Ipsum’s mix of word lengths fills a page the way real prose would, without that pull.
- Everyone recognises it. Designers, developers and clients all know it means “words go here”, so nobody mistakes it for approved copy.
- It’s neutral. Real English filler (a famous quote, a joke) can colour how people react to a layout or start a debate about the words instead of the design.
When not to use Lorem Ipsum
| Situation | Use Lorem Ipsum? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Early wireframes and layout mockups | Yes | The copy isn’t written yet; you’re judging structure |
| Buttons, labels, menus and other short text | No | Real length matters — a button that fits “Lorem” may not fit “Continue to checkout” |
| Designs that will be translated | No | Text length changes a lot between languages; test with realistic translations |
| Final client or stakeholder review | No | Placeholder left in at sign-off looks unfinished and hides problems with the real content |
| Accessibility or readability testing | No | Screen reader and reading-level checks need real sentences |
A good rule of thumb: if the exact length, language or meaning of the text will affect the design, use real copy — or at least a realistic draft of the right length. Many teams now write rough real content first for exactly this reason.
How to generate Lorem Ipsum
- Open Altto’s Lorem Ipsum Generator.
- Choose paragraphs (1–15), sentences (1–30) or words (5–300), and set how many with the slider. Leave “Start with Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet…” ticked for the classic opening, or untick it.
- Click Copy, or Generate new text for a fresh version at the same settings. A word, character and paragraph count shows underneath.
The text is generated inside your browser tab, so it’s instant and nothing is sent to a server.
Other quick ways to get it: in Microsoft Word, type =lorem() on a new line and press Enter to insert a few paragraphs (=lorem(2,5) gives two paragraphs of five sentences; =rand() does the same with English sample text). In code editors with Emmet, such as VS Code, typing lorem in an HTML file and accepting the Emmet suggestion inserts a paragraph, and lorem50 gives 50 words.
Common questions
What does Lorem Ipsum actually say?
How old is Lorem Ipsum?
Why is Lorem Ipsum in Latin instead of English?
When should I NOT use Lorem Ipsum?
How do I insert Lorem Ipsum in Word?
Is Lorem Ipsum copyrighted?
Can I generate a specific amount of Lorem Ipsum?
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Sources
Where the history in this guide comes from:
- Wikipedia — Lorem ipsum (the De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 1.10.32–33 passage, Richard McClintock’s 1994 identification, and the Letraset transfer sheets of the 1960s)