ToolPetal
Lorem ipsum generator
- Runs on your device
- Nothing uploaded
- Free, no sign-up
How much filler each slot needs
Placeholder text is only useful if it is about as long as the real thing will be. Too short and the layout looks tidier than it will; too long and you design around a problem that won't exist. These are the sizes worth generating for the usual slots.
| Slot | Generate | Why that size |
|---|---|---|
| Button or menu label | 1 to 3 words | Real labels are short verbs. Test the longest one you expect, not the shortest. |
| Headline or card title | 5 to 10 words | Shows whether a title wraps to a second line at phone width. |
| Card or product blurb | 20 to 30 words | Enough to check line clamping and uneven card heights in a grid. |
| Meta description | 155 characters | Google trims long descriptions by pixel width, and about 150 to 160 characters is a common target. See the meta description generator. |
| SMS | 160 characters | One standard text message segment with plain Latin letters. |
| Post on X | 280 characters | The limit for accounts without Premium. |
| Discord message | 2,000 characters | The limit without Nitro. Useful for testing an embed or a bot reply. See the Discord text formatter. |
| Article body | 3 to 5 paragraphs | Enough to see paragraph spacing, line length and where an image or ad would break the text. |
Exact character mode, step by step
Most generators give you paragraphs and leave you to trim. For a field with a hard limit, choose Characters (exact). The tool keeps adding random words while leaving room at the end, then picks a closing word whose length lands exactly on your number, and adds a period. Spaces and the period count, so the result is the same length a form's maxlength or a character counter would see.
Example: ask for 155 characters with the classic opening on. You get something like Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet voluptate id luctus incididunt vestibulum ea adipiscing irure mi eget suscipit ut egestas malesuada duis massa non exercitation. That is 155 characters exactly, 23 words, and it ends on a whole word instead of a chopped one. Paste it into the field and you see where your counter goes red and how a full length snippet wraps.
For comparison, the classic paragraph that starts Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit is 69 words, 4 sentences and 445 characters with spaces (377 without). Its words average 5.35 letters, which is a bit longer than everyday English, so lorem ipsum fills a line slightly faster than real copy with the same word count.
Where the Latin comes from
The words are from Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the ends of good and evil), written in 45 BC. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 contain this line:
Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit, amet, consectetur, adipisci velit…
Roughly: nobody loves pain itself because it is pain. Somewhere along the way the text was cut and shuffled. Dolorem lost its first syllable and became lorem, adipisci turned into adipiscing, and words that don't exist in Latin crept in. That is why it reads like Latin but can't be translated, which is the point: readers look at the layout instead of the words. This tool starts with that standard passage when the checkbox is on, then continues with words drawn at random from it and a few dozen other Latin looking words.
When lorem ipsum is the wrong choice
- It ships by accident. Search engines index placeholder text like any other text. Before launch, search your templates and CMS for “lorem”.
- It hides length problems in other languages. Translated strings often run longer than English, and lorem ipsum won't show that. Test with real translations when you have them.
- It doesn't test hard text. No long URLs, no emoji, no right to left scripts, no names with accents. Paste real worst case samples for those.
- It confuses screen readers and usability tests. Testers read it as gibberish, which skews feedback. Use draft copy in anything a user will try.
- Each click is random. Only the classic opening is fixed. If you need the same text twice, copy it or download the .txt file.
Questions
Is lorem ipsum real Latin?
It started as real Latin. The standard passage comes from Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (45 BC), sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33, but words were cut, dropped and shuffled, so it no longer translates as a sentence.
What does lorem ipsum mean?
Nothing on its own. Lorem is the back half of dolorem (pain), from Cicero's line about nobody loving pain for its own sake. Ipsum means itself.
How long is the standard lorem ipsum paragraph?
The classic paragraph that begins Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet has 69 words, 4 sentences and 445 characters with spaces (377 without).
Can I get an exact number of characters?
Yes. Choose Characters, enter the number and the text comes out at exactly that length, spaces and the final period included, ending on a whole word.
Can I use the generated text in commercial work?
Yes. Cicero's text is long out of copyright and the random words are generated in your browser, so there is nothing to license or credit.
Is anything sent to a server?
No. The text is generated in your browser with JavaScript and is not sent anywhere.