Lorem ipsum has been the designer's placeholder text since the 1960s. Learn its 2,000-year history, why it works better than real text in mockups, and how to generate any amount instantly.
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...” — you have seen it in wireframes, design mockups, website templates, and print layouts. But where does this nonsense Latin come from, why has it persisted for over 500 years, and how do you generate the exact amount you need for your project? This guide covers everything.
Lorem ipsum is placeholder text derived from a work of Latin philosophy by Cicero, written around 45 BC: de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (“On the Ends of Good and Evil”). The original passage discusses the nature of pleasure and pain in a philosophical context.
The lorem ipsum text is a deliberately scrambled, nonsensical version of that original. The scrambling is intentional — text that is readable distracts viewers from evaluating the design itself. Meaningless but realistic-looking Latin lets designers, clients, and stakeholders focus on layout, typography, and visual hierarchy without being distracted by the content.
The modern usage traces to the 1960s, when Letraset (a company producing dry-transfer lettering sheets) used the passage in their type specimen books. Desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker adopted it in the 1980s, and it has been the default placeholder text in design and publishing tools ever since.
Standard lorem ipsum works for most design contexts, but specialised placeholder text can be more appropriate in certain scenarios:
| Placeholder type | What it uses | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Classic Lorem Ipsum | Scrambled Cicero Latin | General design mockups, print layouts |
| Dummy business text | English-language business phrases | Corporate website prototypes where the tone matters |
| Themed placeholder text | Bacon ipsum, Cat ipsum, etc. | Team fun, lightweight projects |
| Real sample content | Actual draft copy | Final design review, client presentations |
With AI content tools available, some designers now use AI-generated draft content rather than lorem ipsum for mockups — the reasoning being that realistic content identifies layout issues (like an unexpectedly short heading or an exceptionally long word that breaks a UI component) that lorem ipsum might not reveal.
This is a valid approach for later-stage mockups, but for early wireframes and structural design, lorem ipsum still has the advantage of keeping discussion focused on design, not copy.
Lorem ipsum has been the designer's companion for over five decades for a good reason — it looks like real text without the distraction of being real text. The ToolsGravity Lorem Ipsum Generator lets you produce exactly as many words, sentences, or paragraphs as your layout requires in one click. For precise text length checking, use it alongside the Word & Character Counter to ensure your placeholder matches your target content length.