Lorem Ipsum and Placeholder Text: A Designer's Essential Tool
The History and Purpose of Lorem Ipsum
Lorem Ipsum has been the design industry standard dummy text since the 1500s. This pseudo-Latin text allows designers and developers to focus on visual elements without the distraction of readable content, ensuring layouts work before final copy arrives.
Why Use Lorem Ipsum?
Real content can distract stakeholders from evaluating design elements. Lorem Ipsum maintains appropriate word length and letter distribution while remaining neutral. It prevents premature judgment about messaging and keeps focus on typography, spacing, and visual hierarchy.
When to Use Placeholder Text
- Website mockups and prototypes
- Print design templates
- Email template development
- App interface design
- Portfolio pieces and case studies
- Client presentations
Generating Custom Lorem Ipsum
Use our Lorem Ipsum Generator to create custom amounts of placeholder text. Choose from paragraphs, words, or bytes to match your specific design needs. Adjust length based on your layout requirements.
Alternatives to Lorem Ipsum
While Lorem Ipsum remains popular, alternatives include Bacon Ipsum, Hipster Ipsum, and corporate jargon generators. Some designers prefer real content samples from similar projects to better represent final copy length and tone.
Best Practices
Replace all placeholder text before launch - this seems obvious but forgotten Lorem Ipsum has appeared on countless live websites. Use realistic content length estimates. Consider multilingual layouts if targeting international audiences. Test with various text lengths to ensure flexibility.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Do not use Lorem Ipsum for SEO content planning, as it does not reflect actual keyword density or readability. Avoid presenting Lorem Ipsum in final client deliverables without clarification. Always brief stakeholders that placeholder text will be replaced with real copy.