For decades designers have been using filler text when creating mock-ups of flyers, brochures, advertisements, websites etc. The most common filler text is the venerable lorem ipsum which has been extracted from some Latin text but has many words changed so it no longer carries any meaning.
Example lorem ipsum text: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam in ligula neque. Vivamus et felis et velit interdum congue ac quis arcu. Aliquam porta quam at diam sollicitudin vel egestas eros hendrerit. Donec sed arcu turpis, nec imperdiet magna. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos.
The idea is that the lorem ipsum gives a better impression of what the finished design looks like without having to create meaningful text.
Lots of fun new alternatives, to lorem ipsum, have been appearing online recently:
- Bacon ipsum - random text with a tasty meat filling
- Cupcake ipsum - a sweet toothed alternative
- Space ipsum - a space themed ipsum` <http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page>`__
- Beer ipsum - my favourite for that Friday 5 o'clock feeling!
Notes
- February 21st, 2018: updated page to replace a dead link. Many thanks to Karla at digital.com for the heads-up.