I really wasn’t aware that Lorem Ipsum dated back to the 16th century and used by typesetters, It’s not very surprising that the term comes from Latin. It took a colleague’s article – What Is Lorem Ipsum & Where Did It Come From? – to make me aware of the surprising facts behind what has become known as ‘dummy text’.
Web designers probably have a kitty of Lorem Ipsum tools saved close by that’s useful for their web development work. Lorem Ipsum generators come in various forms; some of them allow customizing the dummy text generation with variable font widths, font faces, and other design elements. But there’s just so much you can take of the mock content. After a while your own brain goes to sleep in a dummy mode.
So, if you feel like chucking away the pseudo-Latin mumbo-jumbo and replacing it with some other nonsense text, here are a few options for you to consider.
Fillerati
Fillerati is perhaps the coolest and most stylish of the alternative Lorem Ipsum filler texts. Coded with HTML5, it’s also educational to a degree because it pulls text from classical works of literature (Helman Melville, Jack London, Jules Verne’s and Lewis Carroll to name a few). Google Translation APIs are used to convert the English text into multiple languages. You can apply markup tags and use a smooth slider to change the number of paragraphs on display. You can click the center circle to copy the filler text to the clipboard.
Fillerama
Star Wars can have a bit of fun on the side with this filler text generator. Filler text is freely borrowed from TV shows like Dexter, Futurama, The Simpsons, and Star Wars among others. You can set the number of paragraphs, put in a few lists, and format with headers. You can copy the HTML on the left pane and use it to design your web site or blog (see Directory mention).
Adhesion Text
Type in your characters, set a few rules, and the dummy text generator spouts out sentences taking your characters and the language you selected from a dropdown. You can insert characters in English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Dutch. You can also use Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and even Arabic characters (see Directory mention).
Gangsta Lorem Ipsum
This filler text generator takes a bit of a wild route by generating text in rap style. You might like it if you are a fan of rapper Snoop Dog. You won’t be able to make any sense of it, which pretty much makes it as good as Latin for most of us (see Directory mention).
Fuck Lorem Ipsum
This alternative to Lorem Ipsum has been definitely created by its haters, if you go by the name and the tag line. This is another of those little apps which takes its filler text from TV comedy, dramas, kids show, and other scripts. You can markup the text with paragraph, break, and hypertext tags (see Directory mention).
Bacon Ipsum
Generate ‘meaty’ Lorem Ipsum text that has more than a handful of meat (bacon) related words. This filler text generator is definitely not for the vegetarians.
Blind Text Generator
Here you have a dummy text generator with a variety of filler options, from normal English to Kafka. Advanced options include customizable font styles, letter spacing, text decorations, and alignment options. You can wrap the code around all your HTML designing needs.
Malevole
Set the number of paragraphs and click on generate. This handy and simple dummy text generator helps you do away with traditional Lorem Ipsum text and instead use text from classical English literature.
Multilingual Lorem Ipsum Generator
I wanted to try out Esperanto as a filler text, and I found it here which gives you quite a few multilingual ways of trying out your placeholder text. You can of course go for the traditional Lorem Ipsum text or choose from other languages (including Japanese and Chinese).
Duck Island
An alternate Lorem Ipsum generator that gives you filler text inspired from The Matrix? You can try it out here. Then, you have a few more options ranging from classical Latin to Techno Babble. The screenshot shows the output after your select The Matrix option.
Searching for alternatives to Lorem Ipsum generators might seem like much ado about nothing. But as a web designer or anyone who uses filler text day-in and day-out, the sight of the same stuff could start to get on your nerves and eyes. That’s where these interesting and varied options come in.
Which of these stand a chance of being your favorite? Or do you use a text generator that’s not on this list? Let us know.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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