Exploring the use of lorem ipsum in design
Have you ever looked at a piece of design and wondered why you’re faced with paragraphs of Latin? This significant text placeholder is one of the most important elements in a design toolkit and is used worldwide. In this blog we’re going to be exploring the origins of lorem ipsum, its purpose and why designers to this day still rely on it in the design process.
What is lorem ipsum?
Lorem ipsum is derived from Latin and translates to “pain itself” in English. Thankfully, in design it has no correlation to pain at all; it actually serves as a useful place holder when working with typography in design. It has been used as a dummy text for centuries, originally created in the 16th century by an unknown printer who scrambled passages of Cicero’s work to create a text suitable for typesetting demonstrations.
Incase you’re not familiar with lorem ipsum, it looks something like this:
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.
Why do designers use lorem ipsum?
Designers use lorem ipsum in their designs for various reasons, but primarily for it to mimic the feel of using real text without distracting the viewer from the more meaningful content. When designing anything that includes text, anything from an editorial piece to a packaging design, it’s very important to consider balance and hierarchy; the placeholder text allows designers to assess the visual flow and make carefully considered creative decisions.
Lorem ipsum allows designers to focus primarily on the aesthetics and UX aspects of the design rather than the context of the copy. This helps to avoid any distractions of comprehensible text, giving more room to experiment with typography, layout and visual hierarchy more effectively. This also allows the creative freedom to explore multiple design concepts and ensures that the final design is visually appealing and engaging even after adding the final copy.
Another significant advantage to using lorem ipsum is its neutrality. As a placeholder it breaks through linguistic barriers and can be used universally across diverse projects. Whether you’re designing for English, French, German or any language, designers can rely on lorem ipsum to hold consistency in the designs they create, without being influenced by the semantics of particular languages.
Despite lorem ipsum dating back centuries, it continues as a vital tool for designers world wide. With its versatility, neutrality and ability to mimic the effects of real text without creating distraction to the designs. As design trends evolve and technologies advance lorem ipsum remains a timeless tool in modern design. People over the years have added their own spin to the placeholder text, coming up with fun versions like, “Coffee ipsum”, “Cheeseburger ipsum” and even “Pirate ipsum”.
I hope after reading this blog post, the next time you see a piece of design whether it’s a website prototype or you’re flicking through a magazine mock-up, that you’ll be able to appreciate the unsung hero of the design world – lorem ipsum.
