What is lorem ipsum and where does it come from?
Lorem ipsum is deliberately meaningless placeholder text — scrambled Latin from a 2,000-year-old Cicero essay — used so viewers judge a layout instead of reading the words.
The origin
The passage comes from Cicero's 'de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum' (45 BC), scrambled until it stopped meaning anything — 'lorem' itself is a truncation of 'dolorem' (pain). A typesetter in the 1500s reportedly first used it in a specimen book; Letraset transfer sheets spread it in the 1960s, and Aldus PageMaker shipped it as default filler in 1985, cementing it in design software forever.
Why not just write real-looking English?
Readable text hijacks attention — clients review the copy instead of the layout. Lorem ipsum has natural word-length distribution without meaning, so typography, spacing and hierarchy get judged on their own. The one risk: placeholder text shipping to production. Grep for 'lorem' before launch.
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What is lorem ipsum and where does it come from? — FAQ
Nothing — it's deliberately scrambled Latin from Cicero. The original text discussed pain and pleasure; the scramble removed the meaning.