Why do we use Lorem Ipsum when designing websites?
Posted October 30, 2024
Ah, Lorem Ipsum. That delightful jumble of Latin-ish words that decorates every designer’s first draft like tinsel on an out-of-season Christmas tree. You’ve seen it a hundred times—“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit”—and you probably even typed it out once just to feel like a true member of the designer club. But why do we use it? What’s so special about Lorem Ipsum?
Well, let me take you on a journey into the strange world of web design, where fake words are often better than real ones, and everyone secretly prays that the client won’t ask, “Is this a real language?”
A Brief History of Lorem Ipsum
The origins of Lorem Ipsum date back over 500 years to the world of early printing. It’s derived from a work by the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero, specifically his text De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (“The Extremes of Good and Evil”), written in 45 BC. The passage was scrambled and adapted as filler text by typesetters in the 1500s to show off fonts and layout designs, as it had the unique property of looking like readable Latin while being nonsensical.
The phrase made a comeback in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets, which used Lorem Ipsum in design mockups. Since then, its popularity has only grown with the digital age, embedded into design tools and frameworks. Today, Lorem Ipsum is an industry staple, allowing designers to present ideas with neutral, non-distracting text, helping clients focus on layout, typography, and other visual elements rather than getting bogged down in the wording.
Placeholder perfection
Imagine this: You’re designing a shiny new website for a company called Bob’s Widgets. You’re about 30 minutes in, and instead of focusing on the slick layout, the elegant fonts, and the nice shade of blue that Bob thinks “really speaks to his soul,” you’re trying to write about widgets. And not just any widgets—Bob’s widgets.
If you’ve ever tried to write content about a product that you don’t understand yet (or a product that’s so boring it’s practically a sleep aid), you’ll know it’s easier to just pop in some gobbledygook and call it a day. Lorem Ipsum: saving designers from writing about widgets since forever.
Preventing the distraction disaster
Words have power. Too much power. If you fill a website with actual words, everyone’s going to want to read them, critique them, or—worse yet—replace them with their own “better” version. Instead of feedback like, “Hey, I love the sleek modern layout,” you’re more likely to get “I think the mission statement should say ‘delivering world-class widgetry’ instead of just ‘we sell widgets’”—which inevitably spirals into a 3-hour discussion about widgets, missions, and whether or not Bob even knows what world-class means.
With Lorem Ipsum, the client can’t focus on the words. They have to focus on the design—you know, the part you were hired to do.
It’s not supposed to make sense
You’ve probably heard people say “Lorem Ipsum” is Latin, but… it’s not quite that. It’s more like “Latin’s quirky cousin who speaks in riddles.” It’s sort of Latin, mostly nonsense, and exactly what you need when you want to tell people: “Look, text goes here, but don’t worry about what it says.”
If you used real text—like a newspaper article or an actual product description—people would think too hard about it. Lorem Ipsum keeps everyone’s mind on what matters: Is that button big enough? Is that colour weirdly reminiscent of a hospital waiting room? Does the layout make you want to buy a widget or call a therapist?
Everyone’s favourite design tradition
Using Lorem Ipsum is practically a rite of passage. Like eating ramen as a broke college student or pretending to understand crypto at a party, Lorem Ipsum is something every designer has done. It’s tradition! It’s a handshake across the ages with designers of yore who, back in the day, were hand-lettering mock-ups and thinking, “I really hope the client doesn’t ask me to translate this.”
Plus, if you use Lorem Ipsum, you never have to worry about typos. No one can tell if you’ve misspelled “consectetur.” (You definitely did, but no one’s looking that closely.)
Lorem Ipsum in the Wild
We’ll keep this post open so we can include Lorem Ipsum we’ve found in the wild. Whether it’s on a train station timetable, a mug, or even accidentally printed in a newspaper, Lorem Ipsum has a habit of popping up in unexpected places. It’s like a secret code for designers—proof that somewhere, someone was in a hurry, and Lorem Ipsum saved the day. If you’ve seen any particularly funny examples, let us know!
So, there you have it. We use Lorem Ipsum because it’s easier, it stops people from getting distracted, and it’s just plain fun. Real text can be a buzzkill—Lorem Ipsum is here to keep the party going until the real content arrives. And until then, let’s all agree that “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” is the best mission statement anyone could ever want.
Ann-Marie Middleton
Ann-Marie, co-founder and Business Support Manager at Zaltek, plays a key role in maintaining smooth operations and delivering exceptional client support. Her proactive approach and attention to detail are vital to our success.