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Billy Freeman
1,581 PointsWhat is Lorem Ipsum, and Why is it Used?
just really curious
5 Answers
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsLorem Ipsum is basically just dummy text that is latin. It's a content filler for when you don't really have content to put in there yet. It tends to help you make sure you have your font how you want it, such as size, color, line height, font-family, etc.
Here is what Wiki says
In publishing and graphic design, lorem ipsum is a filler text commonly used to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation. Replacing meaningful content that could be distracting with placeholder text may allow viewers to focus on graphic aspects such as font, typography, and page layout. It also reduces the need for the designer to come up with meaningful text, as they can instead use hastily generated lorem ipsum text.
Ian VanSchooten
3,549 PointsAlthough when choosing a typeface, I've always heard that it is preferable to use actual content rather than dummy text like lorem. That's because there is a complex relationship between the meaning of the words and the typeface they are set in. It's easier to judge the appropriateness of a typeface in the context of the real content.
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsSure it's ideal. But lorem ipsum text should really only be used for body copy. It should not be used for titles, call to actions, or anything important or attention grabbing like so.
With that in mind, you really should be choosing a font for the body copy that works really well for whatever possible combination of words you could use. If your font works well for lorem ipsum and not real copy, or vice versa, you picked the wrong font.
Going back around, picking fonts for titles, call to actions, or other headlines....you should have that copy pretty well figured out before picking a font, and re evaluate the font choice if it changes.
Ian VanSchooten
3,549 PointsI'm by no means a real designer, but it seems like if I had a font that works well for my body copy and it looked odd in random Latin-esque words, I wouldn't worry too much about it (assuming my body copy had a good smattering of words and characters).
Dustin Matlock
33,856 PointsA couple articles against using lorem ipsum filler text. I've always thought it was somewhat distractive myself.
Ian VanSchooten
3,549 PointsGreat articles, thanks for linking them.
Also, best practice today is to use the content to define breakpoints when doing responsive design. That is difficult to do or impossible if your "content" is only placeholder lorem text.
Ian VanSchooten
3,549 PointsThat is just stand-in text that developers/designers sometimes use to simulate passages of text when there is no actual content defined yet.
Wikipedia does a pretty good job of explaining its origins if you're curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum
Dustin Matlock
33,856 PointsBilly, there's also many different versions to choose from.
Ian VanSchooten
3,549 PointsAnd as a bonus if you're using the Emmet plug-in in your text editor, you can type lorem and press tab to generate a block of lorem text. Or lorem10 to generate 10 words of lorem. The first few words of lorem usually stay the same, but the rest after that is random.
Dustin Matlock
33,856 PointsDustin Matlock
33,856 PointsBilly Freeman, I edited the topic for relevancy and tidiness.