[StarLab]

Have you ever been out on the web looking for templates, or have come across a website still under construction, only to be faced by a sample content blurb opening with the words "Lorem Ipsum"?

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

I was always under the impression that it was just a random blurb used as filler until it could be replaced by actual content.

I was partially correct. It seems this is Latin, and the blurb has been used by the typesetting industry since the mid 1500's. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from over 2000 years ago. It's from "The Extremes of Good and Evil" by Cicero, written in 45 BC.

So, Why Use It?
It's an established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The whole point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it pretty much has a normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'This is a sample, or Bla Bla Bla', making it look like readable English.

Many CMS packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their sample content.

So there! You may not have asked, but now you know!

[Jerlene]

I always knew that. Well, not always. Just since February 2005, when I bought my first website.

[StarLab]

I didn't, but always asked myself, "Why that article?"

Finally got curious enough to look it up. :)