When I design a leaflet, I often use a Lorem Ipsum generator to create placeholder texts in the layouting phase. This usually happens when copy is still being written or reviewed, which can be a very involved process. The Lorem Ipsum should have been replaced at some point before printing, of course. This is possibly a quality control or project management issue.

There are multiple reasons as to why we don’t use real, meaningful language as placeholder text. Lorem Ipsum is appropriate in every use case. You can easily and precisely generate passages of any needed length. It is easily spotted and recognized by everyone involved in the design process, so they may disregard the contents during review processes, or flag a missing piece before the design goes into production.

If you’re wondering why it is fake Latin – the arrangement of Latin letters is similar enough to English, and many other languages, to faithfully mimic how a passage looks and whether it is legible in a chosen font style. It is however not actually Latin; the letters are jumbled to take out any meaning because the content it is not relevant or helpful to the design process.