When it comes to design, it is normal to quickly develop mock up websites or sample web graphics for clients. We often use dummy text or placeholder content known as “lorem ipsum”. Lorem ipsum are the first two words typically used for any dummy text that is auto generated. It is a sample text that is used to mimic content without any meaning. It provides a natural flow of characters grouped together to mimic the flow of real content giving clients an idea of how a block of text will look in a given space, content box, web browser screen or web page.
How To Generate Your Lorem Ipsum
Rather than doing a search for dummy text or lorem ipsum and then copying and pasting it every time it is needed; there are definitely faster and more efficient ways. Several ways of quickly generating lorem ipsum dummy text are widely available on the internet either as a website application, a browser add-on extension or software plug-in.
This old-school way involved avoiding repeat visits to your dummy text website by creating a new text document and saving the generic lorem ipsum paragraph. Have it on your desktop to be handy so you can use it at any time for your copy and paste action. However, this is an inefficient way.
If your looking for quickly generating while working in a browser, you can head on over to this website, the lorem ipsum generator site. It provides several options so you are able to generate based on number of paragraphs, words, bytes or lists. Not bad as its pretty customizable but how custom does it need to be since it is only dummy text used for a mock up website design or web graphic.
Better yet, if you are using Google’s browser, you can use this lorem ipsum Chrome extension to quickly access your placeholder content anytime.
If your working in Photoshop, you can download an extension plug-in that generates placeholder text. This plug-in adds an additional panel that helps generate a “lorem ipsum” paragraph. This is useful especially when designing the look and feel of a website theme without any content. The plug-in can be found at the Lorem Ipsum Photoshop CS4 Extension, and it is easily integrated and installed.
Now, many text editors like TextMate, Note++ or my current favorite IDE (internal development environment) Coda allows you to save snippets of code and quickly access them via a set command text. For example: In Coda, I have it set so when I type “lorem”+ tab button, it automatically generates a paragraph of placeholder text.
The options are endless and if you really want, you can even do a system wide setting such as using an application like TextExpander.
How to Properly Use Dummy Placeholder Content
We’ve shared several locations on the internet to find lorem ipsum text but let’s not go overboard slapping dummy text all over your designs now. So when does one use placeholder content? Here are some general rules to follow:
- Use dummy text when the client has not provided any content
- Before using lorem ipsum for headings in your designs; it is better to establish your style guidelines
- Placeholder content should be used in wire frames, not visual themed designs (hopefully you already have some established content)
How Do You Use Lorem Ipsum In Your Design Work?
How and where do you get your dummy text? Do you also use some sort of plugin for your programs?