h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My favourite source of all kinds of knowledge expresses a tinsy bit of doubt about the 16th century origin, but that doesn't really matter. (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010216.html )

But as a petandic git I would make a few modifications, which I feel aids the flow:

"...OR perhaps they're all greek to you?

If that last is the case you really need to work on your classical languages. Several of the words in the paragraph are recognisable Latin words. Don't be too hard on yourself though, because, even to Latin scholars, they don't seem to add up to anything, and some are just nonsense -- there's no Latin word lorem, for instance. Some further digging will reveal that Lorem Ipsum is the beginning..."

I'm not sure if using the verb 'dummy up' is recognisable to the average reader, and, at least to me as a non-native reader of English the intended meaning of 'the copy' isn't immediately obvious. If no one else agree feel free to ignore this.

Also the links to Adobe and Macromedia will likely be cut out by the sub-ed.

Jam in a subheader before describing the origin of the phrase, something like 'Ancient History'

'It seems likely that someone found and old (probably 16th century) type-specimen book.'

It certainly doesn't. I quote Cecil again from the same link: "Just one problem. When I spoke to McClintock recently, he said he'd been unable to locate the old type sample in which he thought he'd seen lorem ipsum. The earliest he could definitely trace back the passage was Letraset press-type sheets, which dated back only a few decades. But come on, you think graphic arts supply houses were hiring classics scholars in the 1960s? Well, maybe they were. But it's easier to believe that someone at Letraset simply copied the text from an old hot-type source. We're now faced with the mere technical detail of figuring out which one."

I think this bit should be turned a bit around, and sprinkled with uncertainty, and some more info from Cecil, and other sources on the net. Like Microsoft, who write "A 1994 issue of "Before & After" magazine traces "Lorem ipsum ..." to a jumbled Latin version of a passage from de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, a treatise on the theory of ethics written by Cicero in 45 B.C."

Most pages seem to include that bit that 'Lorem ipsum has been used since the 1500s', but they all refer to the 'Before & After' article. I'm trying to find out if there are any actual type-specimen books around to prove this claim, but haven't had any luck so far.

Anyway, without making any false claims you could mention the 1994 Before & After, and how this led to the unveiling of the Roman origin of lorem ipsum.

OK, I've added "Desk top publishing" as a .

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Congratulations!

Maximus bubblicus

Good stuff

Hey Alan - Congratulations and well done


I am so pleased for you

Hath
x

Thanks for the congratulations evrybody!

ArnieP

Belated congratulations from me, also!

RhoMuNuQ