Origin and meaning of the Lorem Ipsum text
According to most sources, Lorum Ipsum can be traced back to a text composed by Cicero in 45 BC. Allegedly, a Latin scholar established the origin of the text by compiling all the instances of the unusual word 'consectetur' he could find and eventually recognized it as a passage from 'De finibus bonorum et malorum' (On the extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, a book that was very popular in the Middle Ages: "Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit, amet, consectetur, adipisci velit... " (Approximately: "Nor is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain..."). A typical Lorem Ipsum text goes like this: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim ...".
It seems that only fragments of the original text remain in the Lorem Ipsum texts used today. One may speculate that over the course of time certain letters were added or deleted at various positions within the text. This might also explain why one can now find slightly different versions. Due to the age of the Lorem Ipsum text there are no copyright issues to contend with.
In the 1960s, the text suddenly became known beyond the professional circle of typesetters and layout designers when it was used for Letraset sheets (adhesive letters on transparent film, popular until the 1980s) Versions of the text were subsequently included in DTP programmes such as PageMaker etc.
