Lorem Ipsum Generator: Why Designers Use Placeholder Text and How to Use It Properly

You have designed a lovely page, but nobody has written the text that will fill it yet. You wait a week for the writer, and in the meantime you need to see how paragraphs, headings and column widths will look. The traditional answer is placeholder text, and the best known is Lorem Ipsum. Sahel's Lorem Ipsum generator produces it in the number of paragraphs, sentences or words you set, Latin or Arabic, and you copy it into your design in a moment.

Where Lorem Ipsum comes from

The text is a scrambled excerpt from a work by the Roman orator Cicero, written more than two thousand years ago, about the limits of good and evil. Printers have used it for centuries to show how type and pages look, and it has been common in print and digital design for decades. Its words were deliberately scrambled so it has no readable meaning, while the word lengths and letter distribution stay close to real Latin.

Why not just repeat "text text text"

The logical question: why not write "content goes here" and repeat it? Because repetition fools a design in two ways. First, the page looks mechanical and monotonous, and you do not see how it will appear when word and sentence lengths vary. Second, when the words are real, the viewer reads them and judges their meaning, which distracts from judging the form. Lorem Ipsum resembles real text in its distribution, so it tests a design honestly, and carries no meaning to pull attention.

The amount: paragraphs, sentences or words

• Paragraphs: best for trying articles, long pages and column layouts.
• Sentences: suited to a short caption under an image or to cards.
• Words: best for headings, buttons and menus, where you need an exact number.

The tool shows the word and character count of the result, so you can measure what fits your space. A five-word heading breaks differently from a fifteen-word one, and you see that only when you try the real length.

The familiar opening phrase

Most placeholder text begins with "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet". The tool has an option "Start with the familiar opening" which you turn on when you want this traditional start and off when you want text that begins with other words. The reason to turn it off is that some people who see the same opening in every mock-up conclude it is final copy.

Arabic or Latin text?

Latin suits general designs, but it does not test what matters to a designer working with Arabic: right-to-left direction, the shape of connected letters, the right line height for Arabic fonts, and line breaking. A design that looks lovely with Latin text can let you down when real Arabic goes in, because Arabic fonts need taller lines and produce different text blocks. So we advise trying your design with both if your site is bilingual. The tool lets you pick the language from the list.

Test your design with the longest and shortest likely headings, not just the ideal text.

Tips for using it wisely

Start with realistic lengths, not ideal ones. If your article titles are usually between four and eighteen words, try both extremes and the middle. Try one short paragraph and one very long one to see how the design handles spacing. And do not forget empty states: what shows when there is no text at all? Many faults appear when content is absent, not when it is plentiful.

If you are showing the design to a client, add a short note that the text is placeholder, so they comment on the layout rather than the words.

When placeholder text does harm

• Reaching production: a well-known mistake is publishing a page with "Lorem ipsum" in it for visitors to see. Search for the phrase before launch.
• Hiding content problems: a design built on ideal text may collapse with longer or shorter real content. Test extreme cases.
• Postponing thinking about content: content is part of the design, and it helps if someone writes a real first draft early.
• Accessibility: screen readers read placeholder text as it is, so do not leave it in forms that users will test.

How to use it

1. Choose the language: Latin or Arabic.
2. Choose the unit: paragraphs, sentences or words, and enter the number.
3. Turn the familiar opening phrase on or off.
4. Copy the text, and press "New text" for a different version.

A realistic scenario

A front-end developer is building a blog page. She needs three article cards, each with a six-word title and a two-sentence summary, then a full article of eight paragraphs. She generates the titles by words, the summaries by sentences and the article by paragraphs, and pastes each in place within a minute. Then she switches the language to Arabic to confirm the cards hold longer text and the direction is correct. She finds the problem before the client sees it.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Scrambled Latin used in place of real content so a design can be judged without meaning getting in the way.

Why not repeat real text?

Repeated real text draws attention to its meaning and looks mechanical, whereas Lorem Ipsum resembles real text in its letter distribution.

Is it copyrighted?

No. Its origin is very old and it is free to use.

Is there Arabic placeholder text?

Yes. Choose Arabic from the language list to get Arabic text instead of Latin.

Is what I generate sent to a server?

No. The text is generated in your browser without contacting any server.