UUIDs Explained: What They Are and How They Work

It started as a bit of classical Latin that nobody could quite translate — and five centuries later, it's still the backbone of virtually every design mockup on the planet. Lorem ipsum is the go-to placeholder text that designers reach for when the actual content hasn't been written yet. But where did it come from, and why does it persist so strongly?

Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, is credited with discovering the connection between the lorem ipsum text and Cicero's work in the 1980s while working on a design project.

For client presentations, particularly when stakeholders will actually read the mockup, consider using realistic placeholder text instead. Legal disclaimers, safety warnings, and healthcare information need to be represented with appropriate content — not latinized placeholders that could mask layout problems.

Content strategists argue that wireframes with real content reveal problems that lorem ipsum hides: headlines that are too long, columns that are too narrow for meaningful text, or CTAs that don't accommodate realistic language.

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