Where does it come from?
Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.
Why do we use it?
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like)
What is Lorem Ipsum?
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, no corrumpit gloriatur dissentias quo, prima scripta dolorem ei mea, ut cum magna officiis. Ad volumus oportere eloquentiam per, suas affert interesset quo ea. Cu eam facer feugait, ne aliquip suscipit ponderum vim. Oratio tritani adipiscing qui te, nam ponderum definiebas ei, nobis habemus mei ex. Sed ei bonorum suscipiantur, ad duo legere tritani fabulas, unum ocurreret incorrupte ius ei.
Nobis utroque et est, ipsum utinam his ut. Has nulla aeterno id, eos ei augue harum, mea at elaboraret concludaturque. Lorem scripta et pro. Et eos dolores probatus, ad nam partiendo rationibus. Eu esse purto eam, ut sed munere corpora posidonium.
Ornatus invidunt molestiae nec et. Vel eu soluta latine. In persius saperet civibus vix, has eligendi perfecto euripidis no. Ad quo detracto complectitur, vis ad illud iudico temporibus, vim ad quidam vituperata. Mel ea prompta epicurei, cu soleat voluptua invenire vim, nonumes conceptam sed ea. Et pri mollis mediocrem, in congue salutandi pro, ex legimus expetenda referrentur nam. Ut quas dolore labores cum.
Vis iusto iudico et, eripuit molestie facilisi has ei, vitae deserunt est no. Vis ad offendit salutatus constituam, suas salutatus maiestatis vim ea, pri nibh possim definitionem no. Propriae detraxit eam ea, nemore laboramus mei te. Summo pertinacia vix in, ad eruditi suscipiantur pro, debet civibus phaedrum vim at. Assum harum quaerendum ut has, an sed choro inimicus, cum ei intellegat adolescens. Nec legere veritus blandit et.
Purto choro pertinacia at per. Ei vis quis assentior, ei primis sanctus recusabo nam. Latine facilisis conceptam et per. Mei tollit timeam veritus id. Ex ius liber tibique molestie, ut vis dignissim ullamcorper, tempor tamquam temporibus cum te. Illud vocent quaeque vim ei, ius persius dolorum pertinacia et, ius et malorum torquatos.
