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Lorem ipsum, or lipsum as it is sometimes known, is dummy text used in laying out print, graphic or web designs. The passage is attributed to an unknown typesetter in the 15th century who is thought to have scrambled parts of Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum for use in a type specimen book. It usually begins with:

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.”

The purpose of lorem ipsum is to create a natural looking block of text (sentence, paragraph, page, etc.) that doesn't distract from the layout. A practice not without controversy, laying out pages with meaningless filler text can be very useful when the focus is meant to be on design, not content.

The passage experienced a surge in popularity during the 1960s when Letraset used it on their dry-transfer sheets, and again during the 90s as desktop publishers bundled the text with their software. Today it's seen all around the web; on templates, websites, and stock designs. Use our generator to get your own, or read on for the authoritative history of lorem ipsum.

You can use lorem ipsum as a substitute for content in many print and digital formats. Traditionally, the print industry used lorem ipsum in specimen booklets to demonstrate the size and style range of a particular typeface. As the industry progressed, it started appearing in transfer sheets and word processors. Now, you can find lorem ipsum in printed items like pamphlets or brochures, magazines, newspapers, letter headings, advertising and packaging. In digital design, lorem ipsum appears in digital marketing, product descriptions, website designs, infographics and blog posts.

The origins of lorem ipsum trace to an ancient Latin text. Analysis of the text block reveal that fragments of the text match passages by the Roman philosopher Cicero from 45 B.C. The first use of lorem ipsum as placeholder text traces to a printer in the 1500s that scrambled pieces of the original text and used the new text when making a specimen book.

In the 1960s, a typeface manufacturer used lorem ipsum in advertising campaigns and sold pages of lipsum as rub-down transfer sheets, which were used in the era before computers. In the 1980s, with the development of digital publishing software, companies started selling software that included built-in graphics and word-processing templates with a version of lipsum.