Choosing the unit
- Paragraphs for testing vertical rhythm, line height and column width.
- Sentences for cards, list items and anywhere the length is constrained.
- Words for headings, labels, buttons and table cells.
Generating the wrong unit is the usual reason a layout looks fine in the mockup and breaks with real content: a heading tested with three words meets a real one with eleven.
Test with the language you will ship
This is the argument for the Russian option. Average word length differs enough between Latin and Cyrillic to change where lines break, how a nav bar wraps, and whether a button label fits on one line. If the site is bilingual, fill each locale with filler in that locale — otherwise the layout has only ever been tested in the easy language.
Placeholder text is a deadline, not a decision
Filler is for judging texture: how a block of text sits, whether the measure is comfortable, where the eye lands. It is not for deciding what a section says. The moment you are choosing how many paragraphs "look right", the layout is driving the copy — which is backwards, and produces sections that exist only because there was space.
Real copy is almost always a different length than the filler that stood in for it. Build the layout so it survives both.
Questions
Why is there a Russian option?+
Because Latin filler is the wrong shape for a Cyrillic layout. Russian words are longer on average, the letterforms are denser, and a column that fits comfortably in Latin can overflow once real Russian copy arrives. Testing a bilingual layout with Latin filler on both sides hides the problem until launch.
Does it matter that the text is meaningless?+
That is the point during layout, and a liability afterwards. Meaningless text stops stakeholders reviewing copy when they should be reviewing spacing. But shipping with it, or handing it to a client as a draft, means nobody has thought about what the section actually says — and placeholder text does periodically reach production.
Where does 'Lorem ipsum' come from?+
It is scrambled Latin from Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum, written in 45 BC. Typesetters have used it since at least the 1500s precisely because it is unreadable yet has the letter distribution of real prose, which is what makes it useful for judging texture rather than meaning.
Will search engines penalise placeholder text?+
Not as a penalty, but a page of filler has nothing to rank for and can look like a thin or abandoned page. The real risk is simpler: placeholder text that reaches a live page is embarrassing, and it happens most often on the pages nobody remembers to fill in.