Where Lorem Ipsum came from
Lorem Ipsum originated with Cicero's philosophical text "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (On the Ends of Good and Evil), written in 45 BC. The standard Lorem Ipsum passage starts with "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" — a scrambled excerpt from a section about avoiding pleasure and pain.
It became a typesetting standard in the 1500s when an unknown printer scrambled a passage for a type specimen book. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor, identified the source in 1994. The passage has been used in print and digital design ever since because it looks like natural Latin text — word lengths and letter frequencies approximate those of European languages — without being readable enough to distract reviewers from the design.
The right use cases for Lorem Ipsum
Lorem Ipsum is valuable in specific design stages:
- Early wireframes. When the layout structure is being decided but the actual content doesn't exist yet, placeholder text fills space without implying content decisions have been made.
- Font pairing and typography decisions. Lorem Ipsum provides a consistent text sample for comparing how different typefaces look in context — body, headings, captions — before real content is available.
- Print layouts and PDF templates. Magazine layouts, brochure templates, and presentation decks need realistic text to show how the design handles text overflow, column lengths, and line breaks.
- Component libraries and design systems. Card components, table rows, and list items need representative text to show how the component handles real-world content lengths.
- Client presentations and mockups. When presenting design concepts before copy is written, Lorem Ipsum prevents clients from focusing on content rather than design.
When Lorem Ipsum hurts
The downside of Lorem Ipsum: it masks content problems until they're expensive to fix. Specific situations where you should use real (or realistic) content instead:
- When layout depends on content length. If your navigation menu breaks when a link label has more than 15 characters, Lorem Ipsum won't reveal this. Use content-representative text for anything where length variation matters.
- When testing readability. Lorem Ipsum can't tell you if body copy at a given font size and line height is readable — your brain processes Latin differently. Use real content for readability testing.
- User testing and usability sessions. Participants in user tests get confused by Lorem Ipsum and focus on it rather than the interface. Use real or realistic content for any testing with actual users.
- SEO and launch-ready pages. Lorem Ipsum left on a live page is indexed by Google as gibberish. Always replace it before launch — and ideally have a process to prevent it from going live accidentally.
Generate Lorem Ipsum free
The free Lorem Ipsum generator lets you specify exactly how much placeholder text you need:
- Number of paragraphs (1–50)
- Number of sentences per paragraph
- Number of words total
- Whether to start with the classic "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" opening
For design tools: generate directly from within Figma using the Lorem Ipsum plugin (available in the Figma community), or generate via the web tool and paste. For code editors: most modern editors have a Lorem Ipsum snippet built in (type "lorem" and press Tab in VS Code).
Alternatives to Lorem Ipsum
Several alternatives exist for specific contexts:
- Cupcake Ipsum, Bacon Ipsum, etc. Novelty generators that produce readable (if silly) English text. Better than Lorem Ipsum when readability matters for the presentation audience but real content isn't available.
- Actual draft content. For UX work, writing rough draft copy early (even imperfect copy) surfaces content design problems early. The "content-first design" approach argues that copy should drive layout rather than follow it.
- Real data samples. For data tables, user lists, and dynamic content, use realistic sample data that reflects what the system will actually show — edge cases, long names, international characters.
The standard Lorem Ipsum passage
For reference — the original standard passage:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
This 69-word paragraph has been the design industry's standard since the 1960s. Use the generator for more paragraphs, or to generate specific quantities for your design work.
Related tools
- Free Lorem Ipsum Generator — generate placeholder text by paragraph, sentence, or word count
- Free Word Counter — count words in your generated placeholder text
Written by Achraf A., founder of TheFreeAITools.