Why does my website say "Lorem Ipsum" all over it?

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Lorem Ipsum is used as placeholder text during website design.You've been waiting patiently and you finally receive an email from your website designer containing a link or attachment to your new design draft. You anxiously open the draft on your computer like a child diving into gifts on Christmas morning. The design looks great, but it's got all these foreign words like "Lorem Ipsum" all over it. What's that for?

When a web designer wants to show a client a design or mock up, but actual text and content isn't available, they'll generally use some snippets of Latin text referred to as Lorem Ipsum. It might look something like this:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec id est sit amet libero ultrices mollis a vitae dui. Nullam in metus tincidunt velit condimentum cursus. Vestibulum odio orci, facilisis vitae pharetra quis, porta sit amet erat. Sed ultricies sollicitudin egestas. Vivamus varius, quam quis aliquet rhoncus, metus felis feugiat lorem, convallis semper odio turpis vel erat. Sed venenatis ipsum porta sapien aliquam tempus. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Mauris porttitor malesuada turpis a convallis. Fusce tortor purus, laoreet eu mollis et, luctus a lorem. Aliquam erat volutpat. Cras dapibus gravida vestibulum. Nunc elit odio, suscipit ac lacinia eu, placerat pulvinar nisi. Mauris a arcu ut lectus sagittis pharetra vitae sit amet odio. Duis porttitor, est vel viverra ullamcorper, ligula neque porta velit, ac aliquet sapien orci eu nulla.

Duis iaculis blandit massa, sed accumsan sapien gravida at. Integer imperdiet, ligula sed suscipit cursus, magna sapien facilisis erat, vitae egestas lacus enim quis tortor. Nam eget nibh at dui molestie faucibus in in dolor. Maecenas ut mauris in purus fermentum tempus. Quisque enim dolor, ultricies eget euismod ut, dapibus eu est. Curabitur dignissim velit vitae augue pretium in malesuada nunc aliquam. Integer vel venenatis ante. Proin ut adipiscing augue. Sed ut mi et elit pretium dapibus. Suspendisse ultricies elit ut turpis dapibus id pharetra augue scelerisque. Aliquam erat volutpat. Morbi eu sapien ac sapien mattis placerat non sed tortor. Aenean ipsum massa, euismod ut auctor in, malesuada eget augue. Duis posuere, nibh id tincidunt volutpat, enim tellus tempus neque, at tempor magna arcu in ante. Quisque tellus dui, convallis sit amet faucibus ut, aliquam quis risus. Morbi egestas semper metus et sollicitudin. Pellentesque dictum imperdiet augue venenatis rutrum. Maecenas tempus porta mi.

Cras ultricies commodo dui nec tincidunt. Aenean et volutpat ante. Duis pulvinar venenatis sapien vitae sollicitudin. Donec feugiat viverra purus ac interdum. Maecenas nec tellus orci. Nulla aliquam rutrum laoreet. Donec vitae libero nulla, id pretium elit. Aenean accumsan nibh ultricies orci tincidunt vulputate sagittis felis venenatis. Nunc semper, lorem et viverra auctor, massa eros laoreet sapien, quis dictum quam orci sit amet ante. Sed bibendum sodales diam, fermentum tristique nunc vestibulum vitae. Nulla in consequat quam. Suspendisse potenti. Integer rutrum fermentum felis eget consectetur. Nam mollis vehicula orci, id consequat urna feugiat a. Vivamus ut mi massa, a tempor tellus. Proin ut velit vel urna pharetra hendrerit. Phasellus purus dolor, tristique eu sodales id, pharetra vitae neque. Integer vel sem imperdiet nisi hendrerit venenatis. Nullam at nibh ac augue vulputate molestie.

Fusce a nisl in ligula molestie malesuada. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Ut convallis feugiat lacus, quis cursus neque cursus quis. Praesent varius justo at dui dignissim varius. Proin sagittis placerat elit, non laoreet mauris fermentum accumsan. Vestibulum bibendum ultricies cursus. Suspendisse vitae eros vel tellus egestas semper. Etiam eget tortor eget augue dapibus posuere sed vel nisl. Etiam non diam magna. Phasellus sem magna, convallis in volutpat in, molestie non quam. Vestibulum sit amet erat diam, et laoreet tellus. Cras blandit dui sed orci imperdiet tincidunt. Pellentesque mattis consectetur est in sollicitudin. Maecenas id justo nulla, id pulvinar quam. Proin sit amet rhoncus odio. Curabitur dapibus nunc elementum est pellentesque non mattis libero accumsan. Nulla interdum imperdiet nunc, in feugiat nisl iaculis quis. Curabitur ullamcorper lacus eget arcu tincidunt vitae bibendum tellus tincidunt.

Etiam risus erat, ultricies ac interdum non, ultricies ac mauris. Morbi at nunc ac nisl semper bibendum at molestie purus. Proin ac mauris massa. Pellentesque quis ornare magna. Donec scelerisque, nulla cursus gravida interdum, leo neque blandit est, at accumsan leo lacus at orci. Donec massa urna, tempus ut molestie eu, blandit sit amet eros. Donec urna arcu, fringilla in gravida eget, hendrerit eget nunc. Nam rhoncus nisl quis metus fermentum viverra. Mauris molestie sem eget sapien congue quis hendrerit lacus accumsan. Ut neque metus, adipiscing in lacinia at, egestas vitae tellus. Vestibulum accumsan tristique ante, a pellentesque orci lacinia id. Suspendisse varius luctus tincidunt. Phasellus arcu enim, tristique in pulvinar id, imperdiet vitae lectus. Sed consequat dolor a orci pulvinar fringilla.

What exactly is Lorem Ipsum?

Since the 1500's, printers and typesetters have been using this scrambled bit of latin and non-sensical words to fill space. The text is ideal because of the relatively even distribution of letters and spacing. With the advent of the internet and website design, use of Lorem Ipsum blossomed. Because of the nature of the text, there is no particular aspect that draws attention, so the viewer's eye is more naturally attracted to design elements and colors. When a web designer wants to demonstrate a design or element idea, we definitely want their attention to be on the graphics, layout and colors, not the specific text that might be used.

The root Latin actually comes from Cicero's The Extremes of Good and Evil written in 45 B.C. The core phrase is translated as:

Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?

So, don't be alarmed by the text. Focus on the overall design and understand that your web designer will be filling in your actual text later on.

Lorem Ipsum is used as a typesetting tool by website designers.