Why Web Designers & Developers Use Lorem Ipsum Content

From the designer's side (especially one not skilled in the art of the 'lay man'), dealing with clients can be difficult for a myriad of reasons. Some struggle to convey their wants or needs, whereas others have so clearly imagined the exact result they want, but its beyond their budget or technically impossible.

So what is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem Ipsum is one of the tools in a designer's tool-belt to combat some of these issues by providing a visual representation of what the textual content of a project will look like so other decisions may be made as early as possible. This attempt may backfire with certain clients as they become more engrossed with the words in use instead of the formatting which should be the focus.

It can be very difficult to visualize a website without any written content. To address this problem, it has become an industry standard to incorporate Lorem ipsum when designing web pages or graphics for external viewing. Lorem ipsum is a collection of faux Latin words that cannot be translated and essentially amounts to gibberish. It contains 'word' with letter and spacing distributions that mimic what one might see in the majority of Western languages, so it is helpful for visualization purposes. It allows designers to show the form of content before the content is readily available. This practice allows for shorter production times as mock-ups can be created without filling in the actual content. Unfortunately, not everyone is aware of the use of Lorem ipsum and may be more put off than helped by its inclusion.

In some instances, Lorem Ipsum causes problems. For example, in some cases designers or content managers fail to replace the dummy text. This looks very unprofessional, as it makes the site seem unfinished. At other times, clients will see this Lorem Ipsum text and have trouble getting past those words as part of the design. It might be frustrating for some designers, but think of it as staging for a house on the real estate market. Staging furniture usually helps sell the house, but for some buyers, they can't imagine their life in that house with Lorem Ipsum of furniture in their way.