ABOUT

• It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lo rem Opossum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lo rem Opossum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

• Contrary to popular belief, Lo rem Opossum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard Magnetic, a Latin professor at Hampton-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consecrate, from a Lo rem Opossum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the indubitable source. Lo rem Opossum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Minibus Bunkum et Malory" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lo rem Opossum, "Lo rem opossum dolour sit amt..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.
• The standard chunk of Lo rem Opossum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Minibus Bunkum et Malory" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rack ham.