Flowing serpentines

25 April 2023
Posted by ip_geraip_mills

As an alternative theory, (and because Latin scholars do this sort of thing) someone tracked down a 1914 Latin edition of De Finibus which challenges McClintock’s 15th century claims and suggests that the dawn of lorem ipsum was as recent as the 20th century. The 1914 Loeb Classical Library Edition ran out of room on page 34 for the Latin phrase “dolorem ipsum” (sorrow in itself). Thus, the truncated phrase leaves one page dangling with “do-”, while another begins with the now ubiquitous lorem ipsum. Been either fished for, or wished.

Controversy in the Design World

Whether a medieval typesetter chose to garble a well-known (but non-Biblical—that would have been sacrilegious) text, or whether a quirk in the 1914 Loeb Edition inspired a graphic designer, it’s admittedly an odd way.

One brave soul did take a stab at translating the almost-not-quite-Latin. You don’t want them wondering why you filled their website with a foreign language, and you certainly don’t want anyone prematurely publishing it.

Augue a commodo vestibulum vulputate parturient fermentum parturient eget vel consequat mauris feugiat vestibulum suspendisse consectetur a posuere leo in habitasse scelerisque.Quisque non elementum vestibulum montes praesent urna montes etiam enim arcu urna lobortis suspendisse urna velit a adipiscing imperdiet sem a a sapien suspendisse auctor elit.Ad gravida faucibus vel purus sodales a scelerisque non nam malesuada sem eros quis at nisi suscipit suspendisse ullamcorper natoque dolor maecenas.

So when is it okay to use lorem ipsum? First, lorem ipsum works well for staging. It’s like the props in a furniture store—filler text makes it look like someone is home. The same WordPress template might eventually be home to a fitness blog, a photography website, or the online journal of a cupcake fanatic. Lorem ipsum helps them imagine what the lived-in website.

Usage and Examples

One word of caution: make sure your client knows that lorem ipsum is filler text. You don’t want them wondering why you filled their website with a foreign language, and you certainly don’t want anyone prematurely publishing it.

Second, use lorem ipsum if you think the placeholder text will be too distracting. For specific projects, collaboration between copywriters and designers may be best, however, like Karen McGrane said, draft copy has a way of turning any meeting about layout decisions into a discussion about word choice. So don’t be afraid to use lorem ipsum to keep everyone focused.