The origin of Lorem ipsum
I investigated where the famous Lorem Ipsum text came from. And to see if it’s something vulgar, or weird (like a tomato soup recipe). Instead, I found it’s origins lie with the great Cicero – and he even has some good advice for designers!
Most people, and especially designers, will recognize this text:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
But what does the text mean? #
Lorem Ipsum is used worldwide, what does it mean?
Is Lorem Ipsum something vulgar? Or are we putting an ancient recipe for tomato soup in our designs?
The reality is a bit of a let down (Disappointment warning). While it is derived from Latin, it was intentionally scrambled to not carry any specific meaning.
The first two words are a truncation of “dolorem ipsum”, which means “pain itself”. A weird sentence to paste into your design everywhere 😅.
The rest of the text is nonsensical and improper Latin. The text is so mangled, even Google translate thinks it’s a “pain in the ass” 😅:
The customer is very important, the customer will be followed by the customer. In pursuit, the mass needs the mass of developers, not the investment of the truckload. I chatted in pure but I was chased by trucks and a smartphone. For whom is the bed? For we must drink a cup of pea, or at least some of it. There is no such thing as mass. In order to prepare the smile of life, prepare the homework. Until you need a free port, load the element of the real estate. But the sauce is followed by a pot of protein. Curabitur’s investment was sad with arrows at the gate. It’s a pain in the ass.
The actual text does not mention an ass. Google randomly adds and removes words to make understandable Latin. (“Praesent a luctus tortor, commodo fermentum quam” turns into “Praesent asinum dolor”).
What’s the source of this mumbo jumbo? #
Using random Greek or Latin words to check the layout or other technicalities is a centuries-old practice. It is called “Greeking” and has happened since the 16th century. There is no single “inventor” or original source.
The text we designers use in the modern day does have a source. It is based on a 1914 Loeb Classical Library edition of De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On the Ends of Good and Evil”), a treatise on ethics by Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero from 45 bce. Specifically sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33.
Okay, so Cicero is the source. But what is that text saying? #
In “De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” Cicero discusses ethics, moral philosophy and other concepts that are central to the exploration of human values and the pursuit of the good life. Sections 32 and 33 (the source material for Lorem Ipsum) are about the philosophical concepts of pleasure and pain.
What is cool about these old philosophical texts, is that they are still applicable to modern day life.
You can read an exact translation here, but here’s a quick and modern recap:
a bit of Netflix and popcorn is cool, but too much and you’ll get lazy and unhealthy — if you want to be a good and successful person you’ll need to accept “pain” such as work and exercise
Cicero would’ve made a great motivational speaker 😅
What would Cicero have thought of us using Lorem Ipsum this way? #
When we mindlessly use Lorem Ipsum in our designs, we follow what Cicero calls the “simple pleasurable” path. We don’t do the hard work of figuring out the realistic content.
And as Cicero warns us, not doing the hard work can bite us: real content has ridiculously long titles, endless bullet lists, strange explanations, cut-off images, or “no content” where the design expects it. Leaving us with the thought: “If I had known beforehand this was the content, I would have made the design very differently!”
And then we need to do the design all over again. Or more realistically: a non-optimal page or application goes live…
The Future of Lorem Ipsum #
Will designers still use Loren Ipsum in ten years? My prediction is Lorem Ipsum will get replaced by content generated from LLMs (AI-textgenerators like ChatGPT).
And why not? Creating relevant and realistic dummy content is a good usecase for LLM. The AI-results are good, and can even be an inspiring source for the final content.
That’s great news! Using an LLM is easy and fun, and delivers good quality work. You don’t have to do any hard work at all… (you’re likely seeing where this is going) So “by Cicero” we can expect downsides!
The major downside of using an LLM over real content (or even Lorem Ipsum), is that it looks so misleadingly much like real content. This will go wrong. I will bet you money a designers’ LLM-generated-dummy-content goes live somewhere soon, causing confusion for users (or customers) and have real-world negative impact.
The web is a weird place. With one push of a button, billions of people can instantly see your work. At least Lorem Ipsum shows the reader that it is nonsensical.
So maybe the trusty Lorem Ipsum isn’t dead yet!
Summary #
The words Lorem Ipsum mean “pain”, the rest of the text is gibberish. It is however based on real Latin that’s 2000 years old, a philosophy text by Cicero with his version of “no pain, no gain”.
Reading the source text for Lorem Ipsum, we can conclude that a virtuous designer should put in the hard work and notuse Lorem Ipsum or LLM-generated content.
How cool we come full circle!