In the world of printing and graphics industry theexpression “Lorem ipsum…“ It is one of the most famous and used phrases. Although it is common to think that it is composed of Latin words arranged with a precise logic and meaning, in reality the expression in its current form does not have a real translation because in reality it doesn’t make sense and is used to fill spaces in graphic designs before the actual content is inserted. The expression “Lorem ipsum” has roots that date back to 1st century BCin a work by the famous Roman orator and philosopher Marcus Tullius CiceroThe work in question is Of the ends of good and evila philosophical dialogue written in five books in 45 BC that explores the concepts of good and evil, pleasure, virtue and pain, in the context of Epicurean and Stoic philosophy. The passage from which the original “Lorem ipsum” is derived is in Book I, Section 32of the treaty.
The original text from which “Lorem ipsum” has been taken reads: “Neque porro quisquam est qui painem ipsum quia pain sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit…” which can be translated as: “No one loves pain in itself, he seeks it and wants to obtain it, simply because it is pain…”. This passage underlines the Epicurean philosophy that avoids pain as an end in itself.
During the Renaissanceprinters used Cicero’s Latin text to test the typographic characters. However, the text has been progressively modified to prevent the actual words from distracting the reader from the layout design. The pairing “Lorem ipsum“, for example, is thus a deformation of the “pain ipsum” present in the original text. Over time, other parts of the passage have been changed or removed, resulting in the “Lorem ipsum” modern which, although recalling the Latin structure, is substantially devoid of meaning.
The “Lorem ipsum” became particularly popular with the advent of the movable type printing In the 15th century. Typographers like Aldo Manutius And Claude Garamond They used it to test and demonstrate the typefaces they were developing. The goal was to create a text that would allow people to judge thegraphic appearance of the characters without being influenced by the content.
With the advent of the digital typography in the 80sThe “Lorem ipsum” has become one global standard. Nowadays all software incorporates it as default text for the Page Layoutand even with the growth of web design it has been adopted as a placeholder for texts in websiteshelping designers visualize the structure and aesthetics of a page without final content.
In addition to its technical use, the expression has found its way into more unusual contexts. In advertising, films and even tattoos, it sometimes appears deliberately to arouse curiosity or as a symbol of a message still in development. Its meaningless meaning allows for a unique creative flexibility.
