The obvious idea is to start this article off with a description of lorem ipsum and where it came from, but as designers we pretty much all get the idea: it’s filler text. Perhaps a more relevant topic of discussion is whether or not you should ever really use lorem ipsum in your work.

The question is an important one and something I’ve given a lot of thought to lately. There are plenty of people against it altogether. For instance, John McGarvey writes the following for .Net Magazine:

“Latin placeholder text isn’t just a simple nuisance. It’s a plague on web design, a massive obstacle to building truly great online experiences. There’s no need for it in a world where content goes right to the heart of every successful website.” – John McGarvey
The argument that John makes is sound: that designers shouldn’t be using dummy text in place of relevant content. I completely agree that designers should place content first! Start with content, then add structure, a logical progression of thought and aesthetic styling.