Saturday, May 17, 2008

Spoken Clearly

Gentle Readers,
I share with you something I found to be both fascinating, and ironic.
Many of you have seen mock-ups of print runs, websites or brochures. Often, there is text included which appears to be english - english characters, word and sentence structure, etc, but seems to be gibberish - It is called Lorem Ipsum. Its been used in the printing industry SINCE there was a printing industry (approximately the 1500's...). Its been a common belief that actual text is both bothersome to come up with, as well as distracting to the individual who is called upon to assess the design (not the writing). Lorem Ipsum is seen as better representation of actual text than WORDS WORDS WORDS MORE WORDS AND WORDS.
So, some of the text you see below, is what is used instead. I confess, when I have done mockups of a powerpoint deck, presentation or newsletter, I have used such text.

Here's the ironic part -
The exact text has varied over the years. Its said that the origins come from a printer who scrambled available galley text to create a template of nonsense for text plates.
Interestingly, scholars have identifed the likely source of the text - 45 BC. Cicero, specifically "The Extremes of Good and Evil."
So, unwittingly, this Lorem Ipsum perpetuates the writings of the Roman Scholar/Statesman for twothousand years beyond its original construction.

Please to enjoy:
The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since the 1500s
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."


1914 translation by H. Rackham
"On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains."