Better than Lorem Ipsum

by _gd3l • 15 years ago

7 12 15 years ago

viraptor2• 15 years ago

Isn't the idea of Lorem Ipsum that it shouldn't be a real English text? That it should fill the space without distracting with real meaning?

_gd3l6• 15 years ago

Content is not there to just "fill space". Content is the reason people are coming to a website. Long written content, like blogs, is important to keep in mind when designing for some projects.

For me, I often design WordPress themes, which relates to blogging. Using real content like this is better than just having fake text that isn't even in the language a client will be using.

Ideally I wouldn't use filler text at all, but using at least actual English words prevents me from viewing the content as just something to "fill the space".

viraptor2• 15 years ago

> Content is not there to just "fill space".

Not what I said. Filler text is there to fill space when you don't have the proper text - it's useless, it doesn't have meaning, it's likely to change in the next 5 minutes. Real content is there to be on the final version.

tripzilch• 15 years ago

Yes, that's exactly what Lorem Ipsum is intended for.

While I can imagine there being some usecases in which you'd want to actually test the readability of some design and maybe provide some text that a user can actually read, in most cases you don't and you use Lorem Ipsum to keep the client from reading the text.

One thing you definitely don't want to do, during the design phase, is putting text there that is almost but not quite a finished version of what is actually going to be there. Because that way you guarantee that the client will be reading the text and (even involuntarily) come up with all sorts of things that are slightly wrong about the text and could be improved, which is all very useful (maybe), but not if you're looking for feedback on the design, which is when you use Lorem Ipsum filler.

That said, there may be a few use cases where this "meaningful but unrelated" filler is appropriate, but it's most definitely not "better" than Lorem Ipsum. Nor is "Lorem Ipsum is lame" a valid criticism in these use cases.

_gd3l6• 15 years ago

You are coming from the stance that content, i.e. words, is separate from the design around it. I'm saying this is bullshit and that words/content are the most important parts of the design.

Using a fake language and text that you don't read takes away from that. Even using my classicipsum.com generator kind of takes away from that; but it takes away from it on a smaller level. I try to use the actual content and copy for a site, but that's not always possible (like I said, for example, when I'm making a WordPress theme). Hence classicipsum.com

andrewfelix3• 15 years ago

Clients natural inclination will be to read the dummy text. Lorem ipsum is unreadable, that's what makes Lorem Ipsum great.

_gd3l6• 15 years ago

Users' natural inclination is to read a site's content, as well. Why not design with that same behavior in mind?

What you're saying is that a site's design purpose is to get people to read content; so build the site using unreadable text so that you don't have to be aware of that purpose...I disagree, and made this little site for me and anyone else who wants more than pseudo-Latin nonsense that objectifies content.

andrewfelix3• 15 years ago

I understand your rationale, and it's a great tool you've built. But I don't see how you can say that your text 'objectifies content'. You seem to be confusing readability and legibility. Lorem Ipsum is unreadable in so much as it has no meaning. However it's perfectly good at communicating legibility. Adding abstract and unrelated meaning to dummy text does not objectify the content or add any value. IMO it does the opposite as it adds an unnecessary distraction and creates an association with what is probably an unrelated subject.

Better than Lorem Ipsum

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