Why designers use Lorem ipsum
Placeholder text lets people judge a layout without being distracted by the words. Lorem ipsum has been the standard since the 1500s, when a printer scrambled a passage of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum to make a type specimen; it reached digital design through Letraset sheets in the 1960s and desktop publishing software in the 1980s. It looks like natural text, with words of varied length, but nobody reads it.
Choose paragraphs for article layouts, sentences for cards and descriptions, and words for buttons, headings and labels. Turn on HTML to get <p> tags ready to paste into a template.
Worked example
Five words with the classic opening gives Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Three paragraphs fill a typical blog-post mockup; each paragraph has four to seven sentences of 8 to 17 words.
A caveat
Real text in your language behaves differently: German has long compounds, Portuguese has accents and longer words than English. Before launch, test layouts with real copy.
How this works
The page draws words at random from the standard Lorem ipsum vocabulary using the browser's cryptographic random generator, builds sentences of 8 to 17 words with a capital letter, an occasional comma and a full stop, and groups them into paragraphs of four to seven sentences. With the classic option on, the text starts with "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit…". HTML mode wraps each paragraph in <p> tags. New text is generated in your browser every time you click Generate.
Frequently asked
What does Lorem ipsum mean?
Nothing; it is scrambled Latin from Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (45 BC), chosen so readers focus on layout.
Can I get it with HTML tags?
Yes. Turn on HTML to wrap each paragraph in <p> tags.
Is it free to use?
Yes. Lorem ipsum is in the public domain.
Why not just use real text?
You should before launch. Placeholder text is for early layouts, when content is not ready.
Sources
Reviewed Oct 17, 2026 · test vectors fixtures/tools/text/lorem-ipsum-generator/