Lorem Ipsum

I remember when I first came across Lorem Ipsum text on the back of a comic book. I receognized some of the words as Latin and took it to my Latin teacher, who said it translated into jibberish and that he couldn't understand it either.

Only later when I became a typesetter and graphic designer, did I learn that Lorem Ipsum (and the accompanying text) was the standard for placeholder text. Some people are still confused (one Blogger posted an image from Home Depot where it seems they think Lorem Ipsum is Spanish).

What I didn't know until I came across this site, is that Lorem Ipsum is almost as old as typography itself. It has been the industry standard for sample type since the 1500s.

And it is, in fact, Latin--after a fashion. Here's the detective work which reveals its origin:

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.

The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum is is taken from what is basically a treatise on pleasure and pain. Check out the transalations at lipsum.com.