Lorem ipsum dolor sit.....

This morning I somehow managed to land up on a site that showed numerous design templates for a site. Something struck me as I saw the page. The entire main text area was filled with a very familiar assortment of statements. Obviously, Lorem ipsum dolor sit..... .

This text seems Latin at the look of it. It actually is. It is very often used in design mock-ups as a filler and the best part is that it does not intend to mean anything at all. Its gibberish. The nonsensical nature of this text provides it the beauty that leads designers to grab this text with arms wide open while displaying their designs. Now, one may reason, why do designers not use some fancy text as content because at the end of the day all they want is the viewers attention. But this reasoning basically does not include the most important point. The designer wants the viewer to view the design and not get the viewer caught up on the ornate text. It simply shifts focus.

This text caught the limelight somewhere during the 1500s when a printer adapted Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum to develop a page of type samples. Since then, the Latin-like text has been the printing industry's standard for fake, or dummy, text. Before electronic publishing, graphic designers had to mock up layouts by drawing in squiggled lines to indicate text. The advent of self-adhesive sheets preprinted with "Lorem ipsum" gave a more realistic way to indicate where text would go on a page.

The modern "Lorem Ipsum" was first created for Aldus Corporation program 's first desktop publishing Aldus PageMaker in the mid-1980s for the Apple Macintosh. Art director Laura Perry adapted older forms of the lorem text from typography samples. The text was frequently used in PageMaker templates.

Placing a part of Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum ...The highlighted text is the "Lorem Ipsum" text.

Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit, amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur? [33] At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa, qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio, cumque nihil impedit, quo minus id, quod maxime placeat, facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet, ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat.

References:-
http://support.microsoft.com
http://graphicdesign.about.com
http://en.wikipedia.org