Designing a website takes a lot of work and planning. Many aspects have to come together to create a well-designed site.
Designers often prepare a mockup of the website before the content is ready. To test the look of the layout they use fake text called lorem ipsum.
Lorem ipsum is a garbled form of Latin. It is also called dummy text because it looks like content but is unreadable.
Lorem ipsum is a piece of text that holds the place of real content. Using placeholder text allows designers to focus on the visual design of a website.
Designers use it to get an accurate feel of the layout before the content is ready. It can also help to prevent the content from influencing the design.
Lorem ipsum is also called dummy text, filler text, and placeholder text. This article discusses its history and provides a list of dummy text generator tools.
Why is it Called “Lorem Ipsum”?
Lorem ipsum refers to a specific text used as a placeholder. Many believe that lorem ipsum was created in the sixteenth century.
It became popular in the 1960s in the printing industry. Entering the digital age, computers began using it in the mid-1980s.
For a long time, many thought that lorem ipsum was a random piece of text. In about 1982, Richard McClintock discovered that it is actually based on two sections of “De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil by Cicero).
Lorem ipsum alters, adds, and removes words and letters from Cicero’s work to give an impression of intelligent language. But the writing is unreadable and has no meaning.
The typical text used as a filler starts with the words “lorem ipsum” and that is how it got its name. It comes from the quote: “Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit”.
It seems that “neque porro quisquam est, qui do-” appears on one page, with “-lorem ipsum” starting the next page. The filler text was taken from this second page.
The typical lorem ipsum text is still used today. However, there are many dummy text generators that produce a variety of filler text.
The following lists a few dummy text generator tools that are useful for web design.
Best Dummy Text Generator Tools
Lipsum
Lipsum.com explains what “lorem ipsum” is and also offers a lorem ipsum text generator. It is a simple dummy text generator with basic settings.
Users can adjust the number of words, paragraphs, or bytes of the dummy text. It also has a setting to create bulleted lists.
The explanation of lorem ipsum is available in about forty different languages.
Loripsum.net
Loripsum offers more than basic settings for its dummy text. It generates formatted lorem ipsum to test the full potential of a web layout.
Websites and magazines use headings, lists, and have uneven paragraph lengths. This lorem ipsum generator offers those and more options to simulate real content.
It uses all the text of “De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” instead of the standard two sections. This allows it to generate different dummy text results every time.
Professional Lorem Ipsum Generator
Professional Lorem Ipsum Generator is another ideal tool to generate dummy text. This tool offers placeholder text in Asian scripts, right to left scripts, and more.
It offers several customization options. Users can choose how many paragraphs they need up to a maximum of twenty.
They can also choose how many words they need with a maximum of four thousand five hundred.
Users can add question marks, exclamation points, and diacritical marks to make the text more realistic. They can also choose if the text should start with the classic words “lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” or not.
Procato.com/Lipsum
Procato.com provides a set of tools including a dummy text generator. It offers common settings such as the number of words and paragraphs.
It also allows users to choose the length of sentences and paragraphs, the style, and the use of headings. A selection of preset settings allows users to generate filler text with speed.
The generator makes sure to produce text without any hidden or offensive messages.
Dummy Text Generator
Here is another useful lorem ipsum generator. It includes similar features as other generators.
For example, users can choose the number of words or paragraphs they want. They can also add headings, subheadings, and bold or italic text.
This tool also offers the useful feature of producing the dummy text with English words. So those who do not want Latin text can opt for random English words strung together.
Exlab.net
The lorem ipsum generator on Exlab.net offers dummy text in five different languages. The filler text can come from traditional Latin or be in English, Spanish, Italian, and Russian.
It also offers formatting options. Users can choose to generate a certain number of words, paragraphs, or list items.
The number dial has a limit of one hundred, so users who choose the word option have a one hundred word limit. It is better to select the paragraph option which offers users up to one hundred paragraphs.
This generator includes an option to put some words in bold.
Blind Text Generator
This dummy text generator offers basic and advanced options. It allows users to select the word, paragraph, and character count and also to add paragraph tags.
Unlike other generators, this one offers several options for the text itself. Choose the traditional lorem ipsum, Cicero’s exact words, the English translation of Cicero’s work, text from other works of art, and more.
The advanced options allow users to change the font style, size, spacing, and alignment.
Nietzsche Ipsum
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher in the 1800s. The Nietzsche Ipsum generator tool uses his words instead of traditional lorem ipsum.
This dummy text is for those who want more elegant filler text instead of gibberish. The generator offers users the option to select the number of words they desire.
Nietzsche’s work is extensive so an unlimited amount of words is available.
Bacon Ipsum
This is a fun and playful dummy text generator for those who want to get away from the standard dummy text. Bacon Ipsum boasts that it is a meatier lorem ipsum generator, and it does not mean that figuratively.
This generator produces dummy text that talks about different types of meat. The “all meat” option produces paragraphs full of the names of different cuts of meat.
The “meat and filler” option adds in some classic lorem ipsum words.
Office Ipsum
Office Ipsum puts a spin on its lorem ipsum text. It serves the same purpose but brings some humor into otherwise dry filler text.
Along with lorem ipsum, this generator offers an Office Ipsum and a Client Ipsum.
The Office Ipsum uses common expressions used in the office. The Client Ipsum combines client requests and feedback into a hilarious dummy text.
Fillerama
Fillerama, which is “filler” and “Futurama” combined, is another unique dummy text generator. It takes the scripts of TV shows and movies, mixes up the lines, and pastes them together to create a whole new kind of dummy text.
The generator includes material from Futurama, Arrested Development, Star Wars, and more.
Formatting options are also available. These include headers and lists to make the filler text look realistic.
Delorean Ipsum
This is another generator that puts a playful spin on dummy text. It is temporary filler text, so why not have some fun with it?
It generates placeholder text based on the lines from the Back to the Future trilogy. It provides users the option to choose the number of words, paragraphs, or sentences.
Samuel L. Ipsum
Samuel L. Ipsum is another themed dummy text generator. It produces text based on the lines of actor Samuel L. Jackson.
It gives users three different options. Users can generate classic lorem ipsum, Slipsum classic, or Slipsum lite.
The Slipsum classic produces text that includes profanities. Slipsum lite produces less offensive filler text.
Ending thoughts on dummy text generator tools
The use of lorem ipsum is a debated matter. Many believe that the real content produces the best results.
However, dummy text generators produce texts that look realistic and are useful in web design.
Many of them provide the typical Latin lorem ipsum. Others use humor, movie scripts, and more to create a different type of dummy text.
All in all, the generators in this article fill the different and important needs of dummy text.
If you liked this article with dummy text generators, you should check out this one with tips for creating a website design questionnaire.
We also wrote about other useful topics, like using a web design contract, CSS frameworks, and the coolest fonts.
