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The Role of Lorem Ipsum in Design

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.

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135 views5 pages

The Role of Lorem Ipsum in Design

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.

Uploaded by

An Lê
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Do you like Cheese Whiz? Spray tan? Fake eyelashes?

That's what is Lorem Ipsum to many—it


rubs them the wrong way, all the way. It's unreal, uncanny, makes you wonder if something is
wrong, it seems to seek your attention for all the wrong reasons. Usually, we prefer the real
thing, wine without sulfur based preservatives, real butter, not margarine, and so we'd like our
layouts and designs to be filled with real words, with thoughts that count, information that has
value.
The toppings you may chose for that TV dinner pizza slice when you forgot to shop for foods, the paint you may
slap on your face to impress the new boss is your business. But what about your daily bread? Design comps,
layouts, wireframes—will your clients accept that you go about things the facile way? Authorities in our business
will tell in no uncertain terms that Lorem Ipsum is that huge, huge no no to forswear forever. Not so fast, I'd say,
there are some redeeming factors in favor of greeking text, as its use is merely the symptom of a worse problem to
take into consideration.

You begin with a text, you sculpt information, you chisel away what's not needed, you come to the point, make
things clear, add value, you're a content person, you like words. Design is no afterthought, far from it, but it comes
in a deserved second. Anyway, you still use Lorem Ipsum and rightly so, as it will always have a place in the web
workers toolbox, as things happen, not always the way you like it, not always in the preferred order. Even if your
less into design and more into content strategy you may find some redeeming value with, wait for it, dummy copy,
no less.

Consider this: You made all the required mock ups for commissioned layout, got all the approvals, built a tested
code base or had them built, you decided on a content management system, got a license for it or adapted open
source software for your client's needs. Then the question arises: where's the content? Not there yet? That's not
so bad, there's dummy copy to the rescue. But worse, what if the fish doesn't fit in the can, the foot's to big for the
boot? Or to small? To short sentences, to many headings, images too large for the proposed design, or too small,
or they fit in but it looks iffy for reasons the folks in the meeting can't quite tell right now, but they're unhappy,
somehow. A client that's unhappy for a reason is a problem, a client that's unhappy though he or her can't quite
put a finger on it is worse.

But. A big but: Lorem Ipsum is not t the root of the problem, it just shows what's going wrong. Chances are there
wasn't collaboration, communication, and checkpoints, there wasn't a process agreed upon or specified with the
granularity required. It's content strategy gone awry right from the start. Forswearing the use of Lorem Ipsum
wouldn't have helped, won't help now. It's like saying you're a bad designer, use less bold text, don't use italics in
every other paragraph. True enough, but that's not all that it takes to get things back on track.

So Lorem Ipsum is bad (not necessarily)

There's lot of hate out there for a text that amounts to little more than garbled words in an old language. The
villagers are out there with a vengeance to get that Frankenstein, wielding torches and pitchforks, wanting to tar
and feather it at the least, running it out of town in shame.

One of the villagers, Kristina Halvorson from Adaptive Path, holds steadfastly to the notion that design can’t be
tested without real content:

I’ve heard the argument that “lorem ipsum” is effective in wireframing or design because it helps people focus on the
actual layout, or color scheme, or whatever. What kills me here is that we’re talking about creating a user experience
that will (whether we like it or not) be DRIVEN by words. The entire structure of the page or app flow is FOR THE
WORDS.

If that's what you think how bout the other way around? How can you evaluate content without design? No
typography, no colors, no layout, no styles, all those things that convey the important signals that go beyond the
mere textual, hierarchies of information, weight, emphasis, oblique stresses, priorities, all those subtle cues that
also have visual and emotional appeal to the reader. Rigid proponents of content strategy may shun the use of
dummy copy but then designers might want to ask them to provide style sheets with the copy decks they supply
that are in tune with the design direction they require.
Or else, an alternative route: set checkpoints, networks, processes, junctions between content and layout.
Depending on the state of affairs it may be fine to concentrate either on design or content, reversing gears when
needed.

Or maybe not. How about this: build in appropriate intersections and checkpoints between design and content.
Accept that it’s sometimes okay to focus just on the content or just on the design.

Luke Wroblewski, currently a Product Director at Google, holds that fake data can break down in real life:

Using dummy content or fake information in the Web design process can result in products with unrealistic
assumptions and potentially serious design flaws. A seemingly elegant design can quickly begin to bloat with
unexpected content or break under the weight of actual activity. Fake data can ensure a nice looking layout but it
doesn’t reflect what a living, breathing application must endure. Real data does.

Websites in professional use templating systems. Commercial publishing platforms and content management
systems ensure that you can show different text, different data using the same template. When it's about
controlling hundreds of articles, product pages for web shops, or user profiles in social networks, all of them
potentially with different sizes, formats, rules for differing elements things can break, designs agreed upon can
have unintended consequences and look much different than expected.

This is quite a problem to solve, but just doing without greeking text won't fix it. Using test items of real content and
data in designs will help, but there's no guarantee that every oddity will be found and corrected. Do you want to be
sure? Then a prototype or beta site with real content published from the real CMS is needed—but you’re not going
that far until you go through an initial design cycle.

Lorem Ipsum actually is usefull in the design stage as it focuses our attention on places where the content is a
dynamic block coming from the CMS (unlike static content elements that will always stay the same.) Blocks of
Lorem Ipsum with a character count range provide a obvious reminder to check and re-check that the design and
the content model match up.

Kyle Fiedler from the Design Informer feels that distracting copy is your fault:

If the copy becomes distracting in the design then you are doing something wrong or they are discussing copy
changes. It might be a bit annoying but you could tell them that that discussion would be best suited for another time.
At worst the discussion is at least working towards the final goal of your site where questions about lorem ipsum
don’t.

Summing up, if the copy is diverting attention from the design it’s because it’s not up to task.

Typographers of yore didn't come up with the concept of dummy copy because people thought that content is
inconsequential window dressing, only there to be used by designers who can’t be bothered to read. Lorem Ipsum
is needed because words matter, a lot. Just fill up a page with draft copy about the client’s business and they will
actually read it and comment on it. They will be drawn to it, fiercely. Do it the wrong way and draft copy can derail
your design review.

Asking the client to pay no attention Lorem Ipsum isn't hard as it doesn’t make sense in the first place, that will
limit any initial interest soon enough. Try telling a client to ignore draft copy however, and you're up to something
you can't win. Whenever draft copy comes up in a meeting confused questions about it ensue.

Summing up, really:

Lorem Ipsum is a tool that can be useful, used intentionally it may help solve some problems. If you go about
content strategy the wrong way, fix that problem.

Lorem Ipsum plugins


Office suites
1. MS Word: From 2007 onwards typing =lorem(i) or =lorem(i, j) in MS Word creates greeking text--don't forget
to hit the enter key; i and j need to be integers, where istands for the amount of desired paragraphs
and j numbers the sentences per paragraph. j has a default value of 3 and a maximum set to 6665.
>> screenshots

2. Open Office: An extension named Magenta Lorem ipsum generator is available at [Link].
Once installed, an icon will be shown in a toolbar below the menu bar, with the option to insert a number of
paragraphs, the maximum is set to 25. >> screenshots

3. Libre Office: Magenta Lorem Ipsum Generator 2.0.2, available for LibreOffice 3.3, LibreOffice 3.4, and
LibreOffice 3.5.

Lorem Ipsum plugins: content management systems (CMS)


1.

o Joomla

o Dummy Content: an editor button and system plugin (Joomla extension) that sets
random dummy copy in articles or in other content item that have editors like custom HTML
modules, category descriptions, or third party content.

o Folcomedia - Button Lorem Ipsum: creates a button in the editor to insert a paragraph of
"Lorem Ipsum" greeking text.

o Content Fake: a component that allows for easy creation of menu items, quickly creating
paragraphs of "Lorem Ipsum" and pictures with custom sizes.

o Overview of all Joomla plugins for Lorem Ipsum generation.

2.

o Wordpress

o Lorem Ipsum Generator: Creates a button on wysiwyg toolbars to add a configurable


amount of Lorem Ipsum text to a post, page or any other custom post type.

o lorem shortcode: This plugin contains two shortcodes, lorem and loremimage, the
loremimage shortcode can be nested in the lorem shortcode.

o WP Dummy Content: Easy generation and deletion of blog posts, pages, and sub pages
for developers. Full site structure in one click.

o WP Dummy Post Generator: A plugin that generates dummy posts and dummy
categories. It also allows to set names for blogs or taglines.

o Bulk Page Maker: Creates up to 20 pages or posts at a time. You can choose title, slug,
parent, template, status, format, and content via the default WordPress Editor.

o Lorem ipsum dummy article shortcode: A seeded dummy article generator. This doesn't
only generates 'Lorem Ipsum' shortcode but also full HTML articles.

o DNS Ipsum - Due North Studios Lorem Ipsum Generator: Adds Lorem Ipsum text using
[dns-ipsum] shortcode and a TinyMCE button.
o Lorem Ipsum and Place Holder Image Generator: A simple to use Lorem Ipsum
generator.

o Lorem Ipsum Replace Content: Replaces content with Lorem Ipsum, substitutes word for
word.

o Data Generator: Makes example posts, pages, custom terms, helps to style and develop
new and current themes. It's based on the Lolita framework.

o Overview of all Wordpress plugins for Lorem Ipsum generation.

3.

o Magento

o Hatimeria Landing Pages: Creates landing pages with products using all combinations
based on categories, attributes and their values. Description is supplied in the ackend ("lorem
ipsum..."). Supports all features like CMS-Block, injecting widgets, blocks, or variables.

4.

o Google Docs

o Lorem Generator: A plugin for Chrome browsers that allows designers and webmaster to
generate Lorem Ipsum text from the sidebar without leaving Google Docs.

5.

o Drupal

o Drupal Ipsum: A helper module for generating dummy filler text. Presently it defines a
new ipsum provider plugin manager service that allows for pluggable ipsum provider classes,
making it easy to change existing implementations and also to add new ones.

o Lorem ipsum: A simple filler text generator generator. Use your custom sentences and
create some original Lorem ipsum.

6. Adobe Dreamweaver, a web development environment, has a plugin in form of a Dreamweaver


object named Dreamweaver Text. It can be accessed both from the Objects menu via Common > Lorem
Ipsum palette or using the Lorem Ipsum entry in the Insert > Technocurve Menu.

An alternative, possibly more versatile, is Lorem and More. It inserts dummy copy as paragraphs, lists,
and regular text. Optionally available are extracts from a speech by Cicero, corporate nonsense, and a
randomised sonnet by Shakespeare. Text may be inserted in code view and design view. The tool can be
accessed via the Lorem and More icon on the Common tab of the Insert bar (MX) or the Common objects
panel (DW4). Else, it's accessible using the menu: Insert > Lorem and More.

7. It's easy to insert dummy copy with the Scribus text editor. Select a text frame, then chose "Sample Text"
from the context menu after right-clicking. Predefined dummy copy in any languages can be set by
configuring an XML file and storing it in a subdirectory "/loremipsum" of your Scribus installation.
>> screenshots

Lorem Ipsum plugins: editors


 Notepad++

 For notepad++, a Windows text editor, the InsertLoremIpsumNppPlugin can be downloaded


at [Link]. It generates and inserts Lorem Ipsum, either as words, sentences, or paragraphs. The
installation requires to copy the file [Link] and the Config directory (both are
contained in the zip file) to the "plugins" subdirectory of the Notepad++ installation directory. Afterwards,
a new option "InsertLoremIpsum" will show in the "plugin" menu entry. A restart may be required.
>> screenshots

 ToolBucket: This plugin allows for base 64 encoding, it has a change indentation dialog, it
generates Lorem Ipsum and has many more features.

 Sublime Text

 Insert lorem and press the tab key, this will insert a Lorem Ipsum paragraph. lorem200 + tab will
add 200 words.

 Lorem Ipsum generator: A plugin by Emmet, an toolkit for web-developers. After installation
type lorem or lipsum, this will generate a 30-words dummy text, splitted into a few sentences. You can
also use it inside repeated elements to create tags filled with completely random sentences. For
example, p*4>lorem would generate 4 paragraphs with greeking text. [Link]-list>[Link]*4 will
generate an unordered list with the class name "generic-list" that contains 4 list items with ten words of
Lorem Ipsum each.

 LoremIpsum: A plugin for Sublime Editor 2 and 3 from billymoon hosted at [Link]. It allows to
insert Lorem Ipsum in the editor via menu items or keyboard shortcuts. Select how much text you want
from the menu item in Edit->Text->Lorem Ipsum or in the right click menu in Lorem Ipsum. Press the
shortcut key (Alt+Shift+L) to add Lorem Ipsum text. Keep pressing to add more.

 Geany: GeanyLipsum is a plugin for Windows and Linux. It inserts Lorem Ipsum copy with a length of 1 to
5,000 chars and provides a keyboard shortcut.

Common questions

Powered by AI

Some professionals argue in favor of Lorem Ipsum because it allows designers to focus on the aesthetics and structure of a layout without being distracted by meaningful content. It can help highlight areas in the design where content will be dynamic, thereby alerting designers to potential issues early in the process . Moreover, Lorem Ipsum serves as a placeholder that simplifies the mockup process when real content is not available, enabling the progression of design projects despite the absence of finalized content . It is also seen as a tool that can help manage client expectations by limiting focus on the text during early design phases .

The primary challenges associated with using dummy text like Lorem Ipsum in web design and content strategy include the risk of creating designs that do not accommodate real content, leading to unrealistic assumptions and potential design flaws. Lorem Ipsum can result in layouts that look aesthetically pleasing but fail to reflect real-life usage, potentially causing the design to break when actual content is introduced . Additionally, the use of Lorem Ipsum might divert attention from the content's role in the user experience, as argued by proponents like Kristina Halvorson, who emphasize the importance of content in driving page and application flow . This can lead to a lack of critical checkpoints and communication between content strategists and designers, contributing to a wider content strategy problem .

The use of Lorem Ipsum often misaligns with content strategy objectives because it can detract from the importance of content in design, potentially leading to a disconnect between the design and actual usage scenarios. Lorem Ipsum allows for the testing of layout aesthetics without meaningful content, which can undermine the role of content in influencing user experience, information flow, and emotional appeal . However, when used intentionally as a placeholder, Lorem Ipsum can highlight areas where dynamic content might create issues in the design, thus aiding in aligning content strategy through iterative design improvements and testing . Effective alignment requires ongoing collaboration and checkpoints between content creators and designers to ensure that the design can adapt to real content .

Arguments against the complete abandonment of Lorem Ipsum in design include its utility as a tool for focusing on the visual structure and aesthetic aspects of a layout without the distraction of actual content. It is argued that Lorem Ipsum serves as a necessary placeholder when real content is unavailable, enabling designers to proceed with the development of design frameworks that will later accommodate dynamic content . Additionally, Lorem Ipsum can expose areas in the design that might require adjustments to fit varying lengths and types of real content, thus playing a preventive role in anticipating design problems that could arise from content over- or under-fitting . Nevertheless, critics emphasize the importance of using real content as much as possible to avoid these potential design issues .

Lorem Ipsum tools integrate with popular content management systems and editors by providing plugins and extensions that enable quick generation of dummy text. For example, Joomla offers extensions like 'Dummy Content' and 'Content Fake,' which insert random Lorem Ipsum text in various content items . Wordpress has plugins such as 'Lorem Ipsum Generator' and 'WP Dummy Content' which facilitate adding configurable dummy text to posts and pages . Additionally, text editors like Sublime Text and Notepad++ have plugins that allow the insertion of Lorem Ipsum by using simple commands or keyboard shortcuts .

Lorem Ipsum informs the relationship between design aesthetics and content functionality by serving as a neutral placeholder that can help distinguish between the two aspects during the development process. It allows designers to focus on the visual aesthetics, such as layout, color scheme, and typography, independent of content, which can help in refining these elements without content distraction . However, relying extensively on Lorem Ipsum can obscure how real content will ultimately interact with the design, possibly leading to a false sense of balance or proportion that might not be sustained once actual content is applied. Therefore, integrating real content as early as possible is critical to ensuring that the design supports the content's functional requirements, such as conveying intended messages and maintaining user engagement .

Proponents of real content argue against the use of Lorem Ipsum by emphasizing that real content provides critical context and cues that influence the user experience, which dummy text cannot offer. They assert that content is essential to establish information hierarchies, visual weight, emphasis, and emotional appeal, all of which are integral to the user experience . Without real content, designs may incorporate unrealistic assumptions, potentially leading to compatibility issues once live data is introduced . Luke Wroblewski notes that fake data can lead to products that don't reflect the demands of real usage scenarios, whereas real data highlights possible design flaws .

The use of Lorem Ipsum in design projects often reveals a breakdown in communication and collaboration processes between different stakeholders. It highlights situations where design and content strategy are misaligned due to a lack of shared checkpoints, agreed processes, and communication of vision from the outset . Lorem Ipsum might be used as a stopgap measure, indicating a missing integration of real content into the design workflow, which can lead to mismatched expectations about the final product's functionality and appearance. This gap calls for establishing well-defined processes that ensure design reflects the intended user experience driven by content .

Kristina Halvorson, a proponent of content strategy, holds the position that using Lorem Ipsum is detrimental to design testing because real content is crucial for evaluating a design's effectiveness. She argues that design cannot be properly assessed without the words that drive the user experience. The structure of a page or app flow should be informed by actual content, as it adds hierarchies of information, weight, emphasis, and visual appeal, which dummy text like Lorem Ipsum fails to convey .

Design prototypes can play a crucial role in addressing the limitations of Lorem Ipsum by providing a more accurate environment for testing how a design handles real content. They allow designers and clients to see how actual data and textual content will interact with the design elements, which helps in identifying and resolving potential design flaws before final production . Additionally, prototypes allow for the integration of dynamic content from a CMS, showcasing how different content blocks will function and appear, thus mitigating the issues that arise from using static Lorem Ipsum text .

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