Lorem Ipsum alternatives
If you work in marketing or design, chances are you’ve used Lorem Ipsum placeholder text at some point. Maybe to prevent confusion about real copy that hasn’t yet been approved or to illustrate why a copy block should have a character limit in a website design. Whatever the case, you find a Lorem Ipsum generator, and copy-paste. So, why not make it a little more fun? Here are my top alternatives to derail your next creative review meeting while everyone laughs or questions your text choice. (Only half-kidding about that one.)
1. Nietzsche Ipsum
My personal favorite. I took a personal journey into and out of Nihilism so I never shrink from the opportunity to wax philosophical with co-workers or clients. Nietzsche Ipsum offers the full gamut of religious/ philosophical/ pessimistic vocab. So, use with caution! Here’s an excerpt of what you can expect:
Horror truth salvation love love dead philosophy pinnacle hatred ubermensch dead. Enlightenment holiest virtues justice play hope christian victorious endless moral salvation.
Madness christianity value faithful merciful war inexpedient chaos. Mountains against spirit inexpedient hope disgust zarathustra overcome marvelous mountains inexpedient against strong transvaluation. Ultimate spirit joy ascetic selfish. Victorious grandeur mountains ultimate faithful of faith truth virtues. Derive gains depths ascetic pious endless philosophy inexpedient. Burying justice zarathustra faith pious fearful aversion noble spirit spirit superiority.
2. Khaled Ipsum
If you don’t know DJ Khaled’s story, it’s worth a read. He is the definition of success - and has created a ton of content about it. So, it’s no surprise that Khaled Ispum offers you a selection of paragraphs extolling the major keys to success according to DJ Khaled. Here’s a sample:
They never said winning was easy. Some people can’t handle success, I can. Let’s see what Chef Dee got that they don’t want us to eat. In life there will be road blocks but we will over come it. The weather is amazing, walk with me through the pathway of more success. Take this journey with me, Lion! Cloth talk. Another one. Find peace, life is like a water fall, you’ve gotta flow. It’s on you how you want to live your life. Everyone has a choice. I pick my choice, squeaky clean.
3. Hipster Ipsum
This one actually shut down a meeting I was in. I used it in wireframes I was pitching to a creative director and copywriter. The entire meeting was spent laughing about this ridiculous copy and coming up with new ideas to add to it. Hipster Ipsum allows you to choose between “Hispter, neat,” or “Hipster with a shot of Latin” options. Here’s a farm-to-table artisanal example for you:
I'm baby keytar humblebrag irony raclette godard pickled truffaut gochujang YOLO sriracha. Cornhole schlitz kombucha 8-bit kale chips, glossier next level beard man bun semiotics. Bitters mustache gentrify, edison bulb ethical bushwick shaman raclette affogato ennui 90's. Food truck mlkshk drinking vinegar woke freegan tilde gochujang. Dreamcatcher pabst woke shoreditch ethical chillwave, lo-fi meggings. Authentic mustache locavore, chia microdosing forage cray synth sustainable keffiyeh. Drinking vinegar iPhone succulents, master cleanse chicharrones disrupt austin trust fund skateboard before they sold out.
4. Lit Ipsum
If you are very well read, or even moderately well read, you might enjoy choosing between classic literary titles like Dracula and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on Lit Ipsum. Bonus points for having the option to copy HTML versions in addition to plain text. As you might expect, the sample is, well, sampled:
"We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at least a fellow-countryman.
5. Samuel L. Ipsum
Yep, you guessed it. Hope you’re not squeamish about the f-word, because Samuel L. Ipsum is peppered with it. Maybe this one is best for internal projects? Or craft beer clients? We trust your judgment. A little peek:
You think water moves fast? You should see ice. It moves like it has a mind. Like it knows it killed the world once and got a taste for murder. After the avalanche, it took us a week to climb out. Now, I don't know exactly when we turned on each other, but I know that seven of us survived the slide... and only five made it out. Now we took an oath, that I'm breaking now. We said we'd say it was the snow that killed the other two, but it wasn't. Nature is lethal but it doesn't hold a candle to man.
6. Custom Ipsum
The final spot on my list is probably the most actually useful tool. With this custom ipsum generator, you can generate placeholder copy about any topic. Enter the topic and the generator will go to Wikipedia and pull the specified number of paragraphs for you. I suppose you could just go to Wikipedia and do that yourself...but you didn’t think of it! Use the tool. Help a marketing team get some traffic numbers and look extra-polished in your next client meeting with industry-specific Ipsum.
Plus, there's more!
There were a couple of runners up for my list. Cupcake Ipsum and Zombie Ipsum are both fun if you are working with food industry clients and/ or planning for the Zombie Apocalypse. Either way, have fun with these!