Lorem Ipsum

Ever stumbled upon this text?:

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

I have been searching the web for good looking page layouts, and saw this text on quite a few of them. Since I don't understand as much Latin as I would like to, I got curious enough to do a little research.

Supposedly, "Lorem Ipsum" is a passage from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero, making it more than 2000 years old (2010 exactly)! It has been used since the 1500's as a dummy text designed to keep the viewer's attention on the type or layout instead of the actual content. This actually has its own term, it's called "greeking" (although the text is obviously latin NOT greek). In the process, I have found a couple of nice "lorem ipsum" or "greeking" generators:

This one lets you "greek" in various styles, such as Matrix, Marketing, Metropolitan, Pseudo German and Techno Babble. Here's an excerpt of hillbilly greeking:

"Gritts fussin' her ass yer co-op, done mashed, me hoosegow yippie mule cain't. Shootin' guzzled truck bacon mobilehome rustle, preacher jest jail. Beat, pickled, wild muster up afford. Mobilehome skinny greasy caboodle soap catfight, reckon her said country hoosegow askin' got damn..."

This one actually spits out quasi intelligible english text:

"Just the good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm. Beats all you've ever saw, been in trouble with the law since the day they was born. Straight'nin' the curve, flat'nin' the hills. Someday the mountain might get 'em, but the law never will. Makin' their way, the only way they know how, that's just a little bit more than the law will allow. Just good ol' boys, wouldn't change if they could, fightin' the system like a true modern day Robin Hood."

It seems to contain passages from real literature, e.g. Knight Rider, A-Team, The Dukes of Hazzard and even Ulysses. Which maybe makes the text too intelligible and thus contrary to the aim of greeking. It's fun nevertheless.

There are tons of greeking bots out there. My favorite is http://ungreek.toolbot.com. It lets you greek using the U.S. or Canadian constitutions, Immanuel Kant, Charlotte Bronte, the Dada Manifesto, the GNU Public License in Swedish or esperanto (and more!):

"Mondskalaj lingvokomunumoj kies parolantoj estas senescepte du aux plurlingvaj Cxiu komunumano akceptis la! Pri la lingvo Ni estas movado por lingvaj. Lingvon ekmastras gxin Plena posedo de Esperanto eblas ecx per. Movado por lingvaj rajtoj Lingva diverseco La naciaj registaroj emas konsideri la. Estas unu el malmultaj mondskalaj. Kaj pritaksi aajn solvojn al la lingva malegaleco kaj lingvaj konfliktoj Ni asertas. Kondamnas al formorto la plimulton de la lingvoj de la mondo Ni estas. Kaj neoficialaj kunvenas sur neuxtrala tereno dank' al la reciproka volo kompromisi Tia ekvilibro? "

Translation of Lorem ipsum at www.lipsum.com

I have to do some (i.e. a LOT) schoolwork today as it is due tomorrow...Hopefully I'll overcome my laziness. At least today...