What Is Lorem Ipsum Used for?

Lorem ipsum is a popular form of dummy text used in the publishing industry (and later all forms of digital design) since the 16th century.

Its main purpose is to help visualize the layout and style of a document without the need for actual content.

Apart from its use as placeholder text before the real content is at hand, lorem ipsum can also be used after the content is available – by temporarily replacing it to separate form from meaning in a design. This excercise is sometimes called greeking – not to be confused with geeking 🤓

What Does Lorem Ipsum Mean?

Given its intended purpose, lorem ipsum text doesn’t really mean anything – it is an artificial collection of words compiled to give an impression of an intelligent Latin text.

The first, most widely used phrases are derived from the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero’s work De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On the ends of good and evil”):

…neque porro quisquam est, qui do lorem ipsum , quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci[ng]velit, sed quia non-numquam

(For the most curious, the original passage means “no one loves pain itself, seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain…”)

Over the years, hundreds of alternative random text styles have sprung up all over the web, ranging from quotes from famous people to half-serious varieties based on gangster or pirate speech.

Our DeLorean Ipsum is a part of this growing family! It generates dummy text based on the conversations between Doc and Marty from the glorious Back to the Future trilogy. Enjoy! ⚡

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