Why Copywriters Sometimes Need to “Greek It”

“It’s all Greek to me” takes on a totally different meaning in the creative field. Today, we’re going to talk about “Greeking it” and why, sometimes, that’s the best thing for a copywriter to do. Read on…

Today’s question comes from Eugene G. who asks, “In a meeting today, a designer told a project manager that they were just going to “’Greek it’ for the time being.” What on earth does that mean?”

The phrase “Greek it” is a misnomer. What it refers to is “lorem ipsum” which, yes, sounds a lot like it might be Greek. Lorem ipsum is actually just gibberish—an infinitely long string of gibberish that usually begins with the words “lorem ipsum.” The key is that none of the words are real or readable.

But why would a designer put in gibberish instead of real copy? Answer: When they don’t want people to focus on the words.

Sometimes a designer may want to give a client or product manager a feel for the layout apart from the copy that goes in it. At other times, they might want to give a feel for layout before the copy is even done.

In those cases, they can put in lorem ipsum where the actual copy would be. It gives the eye an idea of what the layout will look like with copy in it. But because it’s not real copy, the client or product manager’s eye isn’t naturally drawn to read the copy. They can truly focus on the layout.

Lorem ipsum can also be helpful to you if you’re writing longer form copy and need to know how long to make your work. Your designer can flow lorem ipsum into the space, do a word count of the words that fit in there, and then give you a rough estimate of how much you need to write.

Think of lorem ipsum as the placeholder for the brilliant copy that you’ll produce. It’s not Greek, but it sure is great.

Your turn! Are there any other terms you’ve heard that you didn’t understand? Let us know in the comments below!