📰 The Astonishing Revelation Behind a Graphic Design Staple

🐰 🕳 Curiosity, rabbit holes and the big twist

🏤 Ever look at something frequently, maybe a building, business or a statue you pass every day on the way to work, but you really don’t its backstory?

That was the case for me with the common text used for web and print layouts.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed non risus. Suspendisse lectus tortor, dignissim sit amet, adipiscing nec, ultricies sed, dolor.

Attributed to Cicero in 45 B.C., printers in the 1960’s scrambled and adopted it for its use today in visualizing a design layout. The value is it isn’t distracting when the design is evaluated. It isn’t an exact translation, but experts have extracted the core meaning.

What was so interesting to me is:

1) that it had an original meaning, and

2) the interesting topic of pleasure that we might get from pain, as in an intense workout.

“Nor is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure.”

–A 1914 English translation by Harris Rackham

There is more meaning in the translation, but I’ll let you click through to absorb that for yourself.

💎 Moral(s) of this story: Things are not always what they seem. Don’t take anything for granted. Often, a little research turns up a true gem. Click To Tweet

📰 P.S. When you need to generate some text for blocks of type, head to loremipsum.io to generate mockup copy.

🤣 P.P.S. For a grin, find this Lorem ipsum alternative: Hipster Ipsum.