Daily Dose of DTP: 10. It's Greek to Me

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Daily Dose of DTP 10. It's Greek to Me From Jacci Howard Bear, your Guide to Desktop Publishing What do Greek and Latin have in common? As far as desktop publishing is concerned they are both gibberish -- and that's not intended as a slight to either language. Greeking or Greeked text in desktop publishing refers both to an actual text file used in trying out page layouts and to the way some desktop publishing programs display fonts on the screen. Of the actual text files used as greeked text, the best known is Lorem ipsum. Find out how greeking and Lorem ipsum are used -- and why -- in today's daily dose of DTP. Class Notes: This is not simply a word-a-day course. The lessons follow a specific order in roughly the following groupings: General concepts > Things you need > Font specifics > Image specifics > Prepress & Printing > Rules & Tutorials (bold indicates the stage in which this lesson falls) Today's Definitions Greeking What do they call greeking in Greece, I wonder? Lorem ipsum Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit... Today's Trivia Painfully Geeky In an actual bit of Latin -- dolorem ipsum quia dolor -- we see the roots of the Lorem ipsum placeholder text. Although garbled, the famous nonsense text can be found in a passage from Cicero circa 45 BC translated as "There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain...." So how did it end up being used for desktop publishing? Theory is that some printer back in the 1500s scrambled the passage to use in a type specimen book. Do you really need to know this to do desktop publishing? No, but it's great for dinner party conversation and it makes you sound real smart (or real geeky). Curious? Learn more... If You Want to Dig Deeper (Or, Come Back Later to These) How to Use Lorem Ipsum Placeholder Text It is also referred to as placeholder or dummy text. The purpose? Find out and grab a copy of it for your own use. Copyfitting Text Another type of placeholder text is used to find out how much type in a particular font will fit in a prescribed space. Learn more and grab a copy for yourself. This email is written by: Jacci Howard Bear Desktop Publishing Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Missing a lesson? Click here. About U. is our collection of free online courses designed to help you learn a new skill, solve a problem, get something done, or just learn more about your world. Sign up now, and we will email you lessons on a daily or weekly basis. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the About.com 'Daily Dose of DTP' email. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2010 About.com   Advertisement