[gemlog]

This is silly.

I've run a printing press in my mis-spent youth. And repaired photo-copiers.

One technique that is often taught is to turn the page upside-down -- in order that you not be distracted by the content.

You are, at that point, and your job, is to be only interested in the copy/print quality. Registration, blur etc. Not the content. That's the editor's job. Not yours.

The same may be said in this instance for the layout. That's your focus, or should be. That's the beauty of Lorem Ipsum: most people don't know Latin. If you want a change, make it Klingon, but retain the original use. That is, to check the page. Don't make it distracting by being readable or in any way comprehensible.

[mherdeg]

From the content side, having worked for a student newspaper and having been bitten by accidentally running a bunch of pictures headlined with "Inspiring 'Red Sox Win' Photo Spread Head", something we learned was to make filler text look as obtrusive as possible, so you remember it's there and fix it before you go to press. Text with lots of "@@s" and characters with deep descenders were both helpful.

That said, I'm a big fan of The Onion's "Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood."

[Joeboy]

> One technique that is often taught is to turn the page upside-down -- in order that you not be distracted by the content.

My reading ability is about the same either way up. A while ago we started painting instructions to "Look left" / "Look right" on UK streets according to the direction of the traffic, on the assumption that people only read the ones that appear the right way up from where they're standing. This is why I keep nearly getting run over.

[wisty]

There's two schools of thought. The "loren ipsum" school says you should strip out meaningful content, to focus on design. The 37 signals school says to use good defaults (instructions, example text). Either way, it shouldn't be distracting in a way which doesn't add any value.