Pasajul a cunoscut o creștere semnificativă în popularitate în anii 1960, când Letraset l-a folosit pe foițele lor de transfer uscat, iar din nou în anii 90, când publisherii de desktop l-au inclus împreună cu software-ul lor. Astăzi, este întâlnit pe tot web-ul: pe șabloane, site-uri web și designuri stock. Folosește generatorul nostru pentru a crea propriul tău text, sau citește mai departe pentru istoria autoritară a lorem ipsum.
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. McClintock’s eye for detail certainly helped narrow the whereabouts of lorem ipsum’s origin, however, the “how and when” still remain something of a mystery, with competing theories and timelines. But it seems reasonable to imagine that there was a version in use far.
| ID NUMBER | PRODUCT | QUALITY | QUANTITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1423 | Cotton | Good | 200kg |
| 3214 | Evo | Prime | 250kg |
| 4323 | Silk | Good | 200kg |
| 2342 | Elastane | Mediocre | 350kg |
So how did the classical Latin become so incoherent? According to McClintock, a 15th century typesetter likely scrambled part of Cicero’s De Finibus in order to provide placeholder text to mockup various fonts for a type specimen book. It’s difficult to find examples of lorem ipsum in use before Letraset made it popular as a dummy text in the 1960s, although McClintock says he remembers coming across the lorem ipsum passage in a book of old metal type samples. So far he hasn’t relocated where he once saw the passage, but the popularity of Cicero in the 15th century supports the theory that the filler text has been used for centuries.
Remixing a Classics Interpreting Nonsense
And anyways, as Cecil Adams reasoned, “[Do you really] think graphic arts supply houses were hiring classics scholars in the 1960s?” Perhaps. But it seems reasonable to imagine that there was a version in use far before the age of Letraset.
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.
