If the reader is dedicated to graphic design or text layout, without a doubt, the headline of the article will have made him smile. And is that Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet are the first words of a template text that is used, precisely, to see how a paragraph looks within a page..
This paragraph of a few lines that always begins with the words Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet , does not actually have a literal meaning. Yes, it is written in Latin, but its origin does not correspond to any pre-existing classical text or its translation into a communication that could make any sense. Lorem ipsum is literally filler text created exclusively to serve as a preset image when placing a paragraph on a page. However, and although the text does not have a logical translation, we can trace a possible origin .
Latin or invention?
We would have to go back 2,000 years in history, to the time of the Roman Empire. The literal "Lorem ipsum" bears similarities with some phrases that we can find in the book 'Finibus Bonorum et Malorum' ('Extremes of good and evil'), by Cicero..
Specifically, this is the part where we can trace similarities with our Lorem ipsum : «Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit ...»
Why was the text changed from the original to what we know today? According to Microsoft itself, Lorem Impsum could be a text modified from Cicero's original by some printing worker in the 16th century. From then on, it was used as a template to see the design of a text before being printed in series:
During the 16th century, a printer adapted Cicero's text to develop a page of typographic samples. Since then, Latin text has been the printing industry standard for fake text. Before electronic publishing, graphic designers had to simulate designs by drawing wavy lines to indicate text . The advent of pre-printed self-adhesive sheets with Lorem ipsum gave a more realistic way of indicating where text would go on a page.
That said, we already know that Lorem ipsum's curious text is a useful tool for layout designers and designers. That is why in programs like Word or Adobe we always have it visible in the help section..
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