Lorem ipsum is a pseudo-Latin text
used in web design, typography, layout, and printing in place of English
to emphasise design elements over content. It's also called placeholder
(or filler) text. It's a convenient tool for mock-ups. It helps to
outline the visual elements of a document or presentation, eg
typography, font, or layout. Lorem ipsum is mostly a part of a Latin
text by the classical author and philospher Cicero. It's words and
letters have been changed by addition or removal, so to deliberately
render its content nonsensical; it's not genuine, correct, or
comprehensible Latin anymore. While lorem ipsum's still
resembles classical Latin, it actually has no meaning whatsoever. As
Cicero's text doesn't contain the letters K, W, or Z, alien to latin,
these, and others are often inserted randomly to mimic the typographic
appearence of European languages, as are digraphs not to be found in the
original.
In
a professional context it often happens that private or corporate
clients corder a publication to be made and presented with the actual
content still not being ready. Think of a news blog that's filled with
content hourly on the day of going live. However, reviewers tend to be
distracted by comprehensible content, say, a random text copied from a
newspaper or the internet. The are likely to focus on the text,
disregarding the layout and its elements. Besides, random text risks to
be unintendedly humorous or offensive, an unacceptable risk in corporate
environments. Lorem ipsum and its many variants have been employed since the early 1960ies, and quite likely since the sixteenth century.
