Authorities in our business will tell in no uncertain terms that Lorem Ipsum is that huge, huge no no to forswear forever. Not so fast, Iād say, there are some redeeming factors in favor of greeking text, as its use is merely the symptom of a worse problem to take into consideration holds steadfastly to the notion that design.
Itās unreal, uncanny, makes you wonder if something is wrong, it seems to seek your attention for all the wrong reasons. Usually, we prefer the real thing, wine without sulfur based preservatives, real butter, not margarine, and so weād like our layouts and designs to be filled with real words, with thoughts that count, information that has value.
Thatās not so bad, thereās dummy copy to the rescue. But worse, what if the fish doesnāt fit in the can, the footās to big for the boot? Or to small? To short sentences, to many headings, images too large for the proposed design, or too small, or they fit in but it looks iffy for reasons the folks in the meeting canāt quite tell right now, but theyāre unhappy, somehow. A client thatās unhappy for a reason is a problem, a client thatās unhappy though he or her canāt quite put a finger on it is worse.
Chances are there wasnāt collaboration, communication, and checkpoints, there wasnāt a process agreed upon or specified with the granularity required. Itās content strategy gone awry right from the start. Forswearing the use of Lorem Ipsum wouldnāt have helped, wonāt help now. Itās like saying youāre a bad designer, use less bold text, donāt use italics in every other paragraph. True enough, but thatās not all that it takes to get things back on track.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
Winston Churchill
Thereās lot of hate out there for a text that amounts to little more than garbled words in an old language. The villagers are out there with a vengeance to get that Frankenstein, wielding torches and pitchforks, wanting to tar and feather it at the least, running it out of town in shame.