How to Generate Lorem Ipsum Placeholder Text

The mockup is done, the client call is in ten minutes, and the product card still says “text text text text”. You need something that looks like real copy without anyone stopping to read it. That’s the job lorem ipsum has been doing for decades.

Where lorem ipsum comes from

Cicero, 45 BC

Lorem ipsum isn’t random. It comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the ends of good and evil), a book on ethics that Cicero wrote in 45 BC. Fittingly for something designers paste in at the last minute, the passage is about pain, and how nobody seeks it for its own sake.

The placeholder version is a chopped-up, altered copy of that passage. “Lorem” isn’t even a Latin word. It’s the back half of dolorem (pain), cut off from the original phrase dolorem ipsum.

From type specimens to software

You’ll often read that a 16th-century printer scrambled it for a type specimen book. It’s a nice story, but there’s no surviving evidence for it. The earliest documented uses are from the 1960s, when Letraset printed it on its rub-on lettering sheets. Aldus PageMaker shipped it as sample text in the 1980s, and it’s been part of desktop publishing ever since.

Why use placeholder text

It keeps the review on the design

Show people readable text and they start editing the copy. Show them text they obviously can’t read and they talk about layout, type and spacing, which is what you wanted feedback on.

It looks like real text

Lorem ipsum has a mix of short and long words and normal punctuation. Line lengths, paragraph shapes and wrapping end up close to real prose. “Text text text” wraps in a perfectly regular pattern that no real paragraph ever will.

It tests layouts before the content exists

A blog template should hold up for a 500-word post and a 5,000-word one. A product card should cope with “Mug” and with “Insulated Stainless Steel Travel Mug with Leak-Proof Lid”. Fill it with different amounts of placeholder text and you’ll see where it breaks.

It lets teams work in parallel

Designers and developers don’t have to wait for final copy. They build with placeholder text while the writers work on the real words.

Paragraphs, sentences and words

The lorem ipsum generator has three modes. Pick one based on the space you’re filling, then set how many you want, from 1 to 100.

Paragraphs

For big areas: article bodies, terms pages, email templates. Each paragraph has 4 to 8 sentences, with a blank line between paragraphs.

Sentences

For smaller spots: subtitles, card descriptions, help text, tooltips. Each sentence has 8 to 15 words, starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.

Words

For headings, button labels and menu items, where you need an exact word count. Words come back in lowercase with no punctuation.

5 words, starting with lorem ipsum

lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

How to use the generator

Open the lorem ipsum generator and choose Paragraphs, Sentences or Words.
Set the Count (1 to 100).
Leave Start with “Lorem ipsum” ticked if you want the familiar “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.” at the start. Untick it for random words only.
Select Generate, then Copy the result.

After the classic opening, the text is built from words picked at random from a list of about 180 lorem ipsum words, so you get something different every time. The output is plain text, and it’s generated in your browser.

Lorem ipsum in design and code

Design tools

Figma and Sketch don’t generate lorem ipsum on their own, but both have plugins that do. Or generate the amount you need in the tool and paste it into a text layer.

Code editors

If your editor has Emmet (VS Code does out of the box), type lorem and press Tab to insert a paragraph. Type lorem10 for exactly ten words.

Your own helper

For component libraries, prototypes and test fixtures, a small function is often all you need:

lorem.ts

const WORDS = [
  "lorem", "ipsum", "dolor", "sit", "amet", "consectetur",
  "adipiscing", "elit", "sed", "do", "eiusmod", "tempor",
  "incididunt", "ut", "labore", "et", "dolore", "magna",
  "aliqua", "enim", "ad", "minim", "veniam", "quis",
  "nostrud", "exercitation", "ullamco", "laboris", "nisi",
  "aliquip", "ex", "ea", "commodo", "consequat", "duis",
];

const randomInt = (min: number, max: number) =>
  min + Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min + 1));

export function loremWords(count: number): string {
  return Array.from(
    { length: count },
    () => WORDS[Math.floor(Math.random() * WORDS.length)],
  ).join(" ");
}

export function loremSentences(count: number): string {
  return Array.from({ length: count }, () => {
    const text = loremWords(randomInt(8, 15));
    return text.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + text.slice(1) + ".";
  }).join(" ");
}

export function loremParagraphs(count: number): string {
  return Array.from({ length: count }, () =>
    loremSentences(randomInt(4, 8)),
  ).join("\n\n");
}

console.log(loremWords(5)); // five random words
console.log(loremSentences(2)); // two sentences of 8 to 15 words
console.log(loremParagraphs(3)); // three paragraphs

The standard passage

This is the paragraph most people recognise, even if they’ve never read past “amet”. Many generators start with it and then repeat it, shuffle it or add random words.

Text

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing 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.

Alternatives to lorem ipsum

Themed generators such as Hipster Ipsum, Bacon Ipsum and Cupcake Ipsum swap the Latin for jokes. They lighten up a review, though people may end up reading them, which is exactly what lorem ipsum is meant to prevent.
Corporate Ipsum produces business jargon. It’s useful when the placeholder should sound like real marketing copy.
Draft content. Rough real copy, even if it isn’t final, gives the most honest preview once you know what the content will be.

Good habits with placeholder text

Vary the length. Real content is uneven. Try about half, the same and double the length you expect.
Label it. In anything shared with stakeholders, mark placeholder text clearly so nobody mistakes it for final copy.
Remove it before launch. Lorem ipsum does reach production, usually on the page nobody checked. Search the codebase for “lorem ipsum” as part of your release checks.
Use it in tests. Generated words and sentences make good fixtures for form validation, text truncation and layout tests.
Plan for translation. Translated text is often longer. German commonly runs around 30% longer than English, and right-to-left languages such as Arabic need their own layout checks.

How to generate lorem ipsum placeholder text