Master the art of placeholder content. Learn the history of Lorem Ipsum, when to use it, modern alternatives, and best practices for realistic test data in your designs and applications.
I once shipped a client's homepage with 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet' as the main headline. The site was live for six hours before anyone noticed. That moment taught me to take placeholder content more seriously.
Lorem Ipsum has been around since the 1500s - some printer scrambled Cicero's Latin philosophy text to create placeholder content for type specimens. 500 years later, we're still using it. That 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet' opening? It's corrupted Latin that means nothing. But it looks like real text, which is the whole point.
Lorem Ipsum works because it has natural letter distribution - unlike 'test test test' or 'asdf asdf asdf'. Word lengths vary like real content. Your eye sees realistic text rhythm without your brain trying to read it.
Here's when placeholder text makes sense:
Placeholder text persists way longer than it should. These situations burned me:
After that production incident, I started requesting content outlines before designing. A headline that fits 'Lorem Ipsum Dolor' might break with a real 12-word title.
Now I design for variance: short, medium, and long content. Edge cases like empty states and truncation. It's more work upfront but fewer surprises later.
Sometimes regular Lorem Ipsum is too boring. These exist and I've actually used them:
For actual applications, you need realistic test data - not just text. Faker.js is my go-to:
Don't forget images. I use these constantly:
Lorem Ipsum is Latin-ish. If your app needs to support German (long compound words), Japanese (different line-height), or Arabic (right-to-left), Latin placeholder text won't reveal layout issues. We learned this at Šikulovi s.r.o. when a Finnish translation broke every text container - Finnish words are LONG.
After my production incident, I added safeguards at Šikulovi s.r.o.:
Lorem Ipsum is a tool with a specific purpose. Use it early, replace it early. And for the love of all that is holy, grep your codebase for 'lorem' before you deploy.
Lorem Ipsum is derived from Latin but is not proper Latin text. It originates from Cicero's "De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (45 BC), but an unknown 16th-century printer scrambled and altered the text. While scholars can trace certain phrases to the source, Lorem Ipsum itself is pseudo-Latin that looks authentic but is actually meaningless.
Designers use Lorem Ipsum because it provides realistic visual rhythm without distracting readers with actual meaning. Real content causes reviewers to focus on words instead of layout. Lorem Ipsum has natural letter distribution similar to readable text, making it useful for evaluating typography, spacing, and visual hierarchy during early design phases.
Stop using Lorem Ipsum when moving from wireframes to detailed design work, especially before user testing, client reviews, and accessibility audits. Lorem Ipsum hides content-related usability issues, prevents meaningful client feedback, and confuses screen reader users. Replace placeholder text with real or realistic content as early as possible in the design process.
Alternatives include themed generators like Hipster Ipsum, Bacon Ipsum, or Corporate Ipsum for specific industries. For better testing, use actual content drafts, representative sample content, or AI-generated industry-specific text. For non-Latin languages, use blind text generators that produce appropriate characters for your target locales.
Use libraries like Faker.js (JavaScript), Python Faker, or Java JavaFaker to generate realistic names, addresses, phone numbers, and dates. Include international formats, edge cases like long names with special characters, and realistic data ranges. Avoid using simple sequential numbers or obvious placeholder values like "John Doe" that miss real-world variations.
Lorem Ipsum is problematic for internationalized applications. Its Latin-like characters hide issues with other writing systems. Different languages have varying character sets, word lengths, and text directions. Test with appropriate placeholder content for each target language, including right-to-left scripts and CJK characters, to reveal layout issues early.
Founder of CodeUtil. Web developer building tools I actually use. When I'm not coding, I experiment with productivity techniques (with mixed success).
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