“Lorem ipsum” Is something I’ve been interacting with and passing to clients for approval almost everyday of my 10 years as a graphic designer but yet I still don’t know what it means. Surely it means something?

Lorem ipsum is the beginning of a passage commonly used as dummy text or placeholder text by designers to mock-up a page layout, or a web page for a visual presentation.  It’s used to show how the type will look, font, size, layout, before the actual copy is available.

lorem ipsum can also be a useful tool to direct the focus to the look and feel of a visual presentation and away from the textual content, as when presented with a design for a page layout for example the viewer tends to focus on the textual content rather than the overall presentation.

It’s also known as “greeking,” perhaps as a nod to the phrase “it’s all Greek to me.” Its ‘words’ supposedly approximate the frequency with which letters occur in English, and at a glance look pretty real, although I would argue that it feels over punctuated.

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