A while ago, we created a new webpage for our internet marketing seminars. When it was nearly completed we crowded around our web designer’s computer to take a quick look. The site design was great, but where the text should be were the strange words “lorem ipsum”.

This is not unusual in itself as the words appear on most website templates, but what exactly do they mean? I decided to do some of my own research into what lorem ipsum actually means and why it is so commonly used by web designers as a filler text.

I found out that lorem ipsum is the dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry and has been used since the 1500s. The first use occurred when an unknown printer took a galley of type and simply scrambled it up to make a type specimen book. Lorem ipsum has not only lasted five whole centuries, but has also risen in popularity with the introduction of desktop publishing software, like Aldus Pagemaker, that automatically includes lorem ipsum text in its package.

Contrary to popular belief, lorem ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it well over 2000 years old. The full phrase “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliq” is Latin and when translated reads “But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness”.

You can read the full lorem ipsum text at Lipsum.com. However, if you’ve found that the learning the real meaning of lorem ipsum has left you feeling a little bored and uninspired, why not be unique and use the Malevole text generator instead? You can decorate website with typeface from slightly more interesting texts, like the script from The Dukes of Hazzard movie, which are perhaps slightly easier to comprehend.