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Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 30, 2019
Question

Lorem Ipsum text [alternatives to default pseudo-Latin?]

  • May 30, 2019
  • 13 replies
  • 11761 views

Hi Photoshop community,

Is there a way to make the Lorem Ipsum text display in English; not Latin?

Mike in Maryland

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    13 replies

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 2, 2019

    Oops! I spoke too soon. After I edited testbed.eve, the Lorem Ipsum did not change for me. Photoshop's meager text seems limited to 32 false-Latin words, btw. Any further ideas, Tom Winkelmann?

    Mike Witherell
    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 2, 2019

    https://forums.adobe.com/people/Mike+Witherell  wrote

    Oops! I spoke too soon. After I edited testbed.eve, the Lorem Ipsum did not change for me. Photoshop's meager text seems limited to 32 false-Latin words, btw. Any further ideas, Tom Winkelmann?

    I wish I'd read all the replies before trying it for myself.  It makes you wonder what 'testbed.eve' is for if editing doesn't make any apparent difference?

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 2, 2019

    While this dubious idea is percolating, let me say how much I have been enjoying all your comments relative to the printing industry and past practices and the technological leap that was the Linotype machine. I, too, was sent on the rounds to pick up Lino output from other shops machines (hot lead splashes are very hot!) back in the 1970s.

    I was once told to go to Helen Bach and borrow the "paper stretcher" from another shop.

    BTW, here is a place I intend to visit this year:

    Welcome to Howard Iron Works - Printing Museum and Antique Printing Machinery Restoration

    Anyone up for a road trip?

    Mike Witherell
    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 2, 2019

    Hey everyone, when testbed.eve is opened in a common text editor, it seems that the Photoshop boffin saw fit to put in 69 Latin words for their Lorem Ipsum.

    What would be the ideal English words to substitute? I'm leaning towards Dickens' Tale of Two Cities:

    It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

    What passage would you choose?

    Mike Witherell
    Tom Winkelmann
    Inspiring
    June 1, 2019

    You can do it with the Script Event Manager ... but before you have to do some edits...

    1) Uncomment "New Text Layer" in "Script Events Manager.jsx"

    Change...

    inObject['events'].push( new EventData( 'New Text Layer', 'Mk  ', 'TxLr' ) );


    to

    */

    inObject['events'].push( new EventData( 'New Text Layer', 'Mk  ', 'TxLr' ) );

    /*

    2) Add "New Text Layer" in "Script Events Manager.xml"

    Add at the end of the <events>-tag ...

    <9>

    <name>New Text Layer</name>

    <value>Mk  </value>

    <valueClass>TxLr</valueClass>

    </9>

    3) Place a "placeholder.txt" (including your new text) at the Folder of Photoshop CC 2019

    4) Copy "placeholder.jsx" to "Event Scripts Only" folder

    https://filehorst.de/d/cIhJEyfI

    6) Start Photoshop & set up "Script Event Manager"


    5) Create new text layer (first you see the "Lorem ipsum" placeholder text - after closing the text dialog, the text changes...

    Tom Winkelmann
    Inspiring
    June 1, 2019

    Searched and found an easier method...

    Simply edit "testbed.eve" (\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2019\Required\eve2)

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 2, 2019

    Tom, you are wonderful! I knew it was likely hiding somewhere in an editable form! How clever you are!

    Mike Witherell
    99jon
    Legend
    June 1, 2019

    Wikipedia says: The lorem ipsum text is typically a scrambled section of De finibus bonorum et malorum, a 1st-century BC Latin text by Cicero, with words altered, added, and removed to make it nonsensical, improper Latin.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum

    That story of being sent to fetch a box of halftone dots is so funny. Maybe that should become the new English placeholder text

    Community Expert
    May 31, 2019

    This has been a really fascinating thread.  I did not know that about Loren Ipsum

    TriciaLawrence
    Inspiring
    May 31, 2019

    Agreed, Dave (and I studied Latin!)  This is one for the Friday wrap up!  Thanks Jane, for alerting me to these amazing personalities in our program

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2019

    While we are on the subject of obscure typesetting, ever heard of a twip?

    Twip - Wikipedia

    1/20th of a point? That is a new one on me!

    Mike Witherell
    Norman Sanders
    Legend
    May 30, 2019

    All this fuss about tired old Lorem Ipsum while those of us who worked with those who sat at Linotype machines had a real hero: etaoin shrdlu - the keys in the first two columns of its keyboard. It had mystery, it had meaning, it had panache. It has gone the way of hot type, but it is not forgotten. Rest in peace etaoin shrdlu.

    Curious? Go to Etaoin shrdlu - Wikipedia

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2019

    Norman, I salute you! And I have read you. You are the REAL DEAL! I lift my glass of Merlot in the general direction of New York.

    Mike in Maryland (with a tornado passing by at the moment)

    Mike Witherell
    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 1, 2019

    https://forums.adobe.com/people/Mike+Witherell  wrote

    Norman, I salute you! And I have read you. You are the REAL DEAL! I lift my glass of Merlot in the general direction of New York.

    Mike in Maryland (with a tornado passing by at the moment)

    Wow Norman. Recognition of your fame.  Has anyone read one of Dag's books on colour spaces? 

    Mike, I am honestly feeling inadequate for daring to use the Type tool in Photoshop.  On the other hand, they do say that graphic artists suffer a particularly acute form of OCD, and 1/20th of a point (less than two hundredths of a millimeter in real money) definitely qualifies as OCD.

    Norman, Cemetery Road would be a good choice for a freebee — it's quite a long book.   I can remember seeing what might have been a Linotype machine in action on a school trip to the local paper (60 years ago).  As I remember it, a very old man sat at a giant type writer, and when he pressed a key a brass character dropped down a chute.  He put rows of characters into a wooden block which he hit with a hammer.  I'm fuzzy about the next bit, but I think the blocks somehow became a drum made out of lead, and this printed the paper. 

    What I am unclear about is if you had constant exposure to lead fumes, how come you are still clever enough to understand LAB mode?

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2019

    Typesetting in Photoshop, in general, sends a shudder through me!

    Mike Witherell
    jane-e
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2019

    As well it should!

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2019

    Hi Jane and all,

    Perhaps I should explain a bit more in-depth:

    In InDesign and Illustrator, if you put a textfile named placeholder.txt into the main app folder, both programs use your custom textfile to supply the so-called Lorem Ipsum sample text.

    Lorem Ipsum is a scrambled set of Latin words taken originally from Cicero, a Roman Senator, in his writing "De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" written circa 45 BC. For centuries, this has been used as sample placeholder text in typesetting tradition.

    I found the English translation of that work, and saved it as a placeholder.txt file and I use it (occasionally) in InDesign and Illustrator.

    Now, Photoshop has jumped in on the act. I was experimenting whether putting the placeholder.txt file in the main Photoshop CC 2019 application folder would also cause the same outcome, ... but it didn't.

    Perhaps there is another way?

    Mike in Maryland

    Mike Witherell
    jane-e
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2019

    Mike-in-Maryland, knowing you, I thought that was where you were going with this. If you hadn’t asked the question, you would have been the one I asked.

    Where did you find the English translation of Cicero’s work? And have you customized any of the classroom machines that I work on?

    Put in a feature request to Photoshop Family Customer Community and post the link back here so we can vote. If Photoshop wants to keep adding type features like InDesign and Illustrator, they need to allow placeholder.txt and the ability to set tab stops.

    Cheers,

    Jane

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2019

    Tab-Stops! Perish, forbid!

    Mike Witherell
    jane-e
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 30, 2019

    https://forums.adobe.com/people/Mike+Witherell  wrote

    Hi Mike in Maryland,

    • I know you already know that InDesign does this with Cmd+Click

    • and that you can type whatever you want and save it as a .txt file

    Mike, are looking for a way to insert alternative Lorem Ipsum as easily in PS as you can in InDesign without copy and paste?

    [Note: for anyone reading my placeholder text, Mike really was introduced like that. It was a panel of four, and they never said his name.]

    ~Jane

    davidblatner
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 1, 2019

    jane-e​ You pointed out two of the three InDesign placeholder text tricks… there is one more: when Caps Lock is on, Type > Fill with Placeholder Text inserts a slightly different latin text. My understanding is that this is from a different oration by Cicero. Anyone recognize it?

    (As for the original request of placeholder text in Photoshop: I'm just shaking my head with a sad, disappointed frown that anyone would even think of placing that much text in an Photoshop image. Mike, Mike, Mike… )

    jane-e
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 1, 2019

    davidblatner​ I only have an iPad with me now, so I’ll have to wait to try that “new-to-me” one out! Did you say that on your podcast and I missed it?

    I’ve known Mike-from-Maryland for at least 20 years and can vouch for him that he is not thinking of placing that much text into a PS image. He just likes presets, especially when he can customize them. I think it’s that initial “Lorem ipsum” text that PS now displays that he wants to change.

    David, I’m so sorry I won’t see you in Seattle next week, but am hoping for next year. Do you have a location yet?

    ~ Jane