If you’ve ever seen a mockup of a website, magazine, book or marketing pamphlet, you have undoubtedly encountered Lorem Ipsum. Meant to keep a viewer from getting distracted by reading the text on a page (which designers and publishers know we all do), the passage of garbled Latin words shows how a page will look with real words once completed. But far from being just a boring industry tool, Lorem Ipsum has somehow found its way into popular culture. Even people with no ties to publishing or designing can have fun playing around with dummy text. These generators give you certifiably nonsensical words to use however you please.

Not surprisingly, a number of Lorem Ipsum generators have popped up on the Internet. While they serve a rational purpose for web designers and other internet professionals, they’re also a lot of fun to play around with. The Gangsta Lorem Ipsum Generator is one of the wackiest examples. You can’t control the text or the length of the passages, but when you hit the “generate gangsta loremizzle my ippzle dummy text” button you’ll be treated to gems like “Lorizzle sheezy dolizzle boom shackalack amet, funky fresh yippiyo you son of a bizzle.”

Blippity Fling-Flang is, believe it or not, even more nonsensical than Gangsta Lorem Ipsum. This generator (designed by orange haired boy) lets you choose the number of paragraphs, the number of sentences in each and whether you want any of the words capitalized. As a bonus, you can also “Flangitize” any web page, turning the existing text into a mishmash of funny nonsense words.

Corporate Ipsum requires a download and is only available for Macs…but it generates the type of amusing corporate babble you would expect to see in a real corporate report. Useful for designers who create a lot of serious-looking projects for very serious companies, this generator actually makes just enough sense that you would be encouraged to read the whole text, thus defeating the whole purpose of dummy text.

Fillerati likewise steps outside the normal usage of dummy text by using actual paragraphs from classic books. Choose from a selection of seven authors and eight books, enter the format and number of paragraphs to generate, and the website gives you a block of text that you can’t help but read.

When your project requires a good amount of meat on its bones, the Bacon Ipsum generator has just what you’re looking for. The text it generates has everything to do with meat, meat, and more meat.

…But the Vegan Ipsum generator gives you nothing but the names of vegetables. Created as a meat-free alternative to Bacon Ipsum (by the creators of Bacon Ipsum), the veggie version takes a non-violent approach to odd nonsense text.

For web designers who want to test out their layouts without having to type a bunch of nonsense on their own, the HTML Ipsum Generator gives the code and the text to fill up a webpage instantly. Tables, lists, and even a “kitchen sink” block of code + text let you try out just about every aspect of your page’s appearance.

If traditional Lorem Ipsum just isn’t doing it for you but you aren’t ready to go for the meat-flavored variety just yet, Lorem Ipsum 2.0 gives you a novel change of pace. Enter any phrase and it will parse your chosen social networking site for related words. The resulting text is a rather interesting jumble of recent mentions and whatever words are found near those mentions.

Another example of normal-ish text generators is AdhesionText, a tool that gives you lots of choices to play around with. You can choose the characters you want to appear in your block of text along with plenty of other options, resulting in a totally customized set of “words.”

What if it isn’t dummy text you’re after, but dummy images? Lorempixel has you covered there with a free random image generator. You can choose the size, color/greyscale and theme of your placeholder images. Use them to figure out the layout of your webpage, then use one of the text generators here to give you some random text to go along with your random pictures…et voila, you’ve got a completely nonsensical website!

And finally, when you really need just the basics, this Lorem Ipsum generator gives you the vanilla version of the classic dummy text along with some very interesting Lorem Ipsum history. We love this tool for its simplicity and for its accurate English translation of the text on which Lorem Ipsum is based.

Flash sites were once the epitome of technology and creativity, and despite being much maligned by Apple in recent years, there is still plenty of life left in a high quality flash site. Whether they were created to entertain, educate, or promote a product, classic examples of flash sites can still steal hours from one’s day.

Music

(Images via burn-studios, incredibox)

Hardcore musicians will love Burn Studios, a site that allows one to have their own digital recording studio. The beautifully rendered buttons and dials lend a highly realistic feel to the entire process. For a more laid back and fun music-making session, it’s fun to try out Incredibox, a beat boxing simulator full of French charicatures.

For the Kids!

(Images via hasbro, buildyourwildself)

Most sites are not incredibly kid friendly, but Hasbro and Build Your Wild Self are exceptions. The first site lets one play classic board games on the computer, while the second allows a kid to express their creativity while learning about animals at the zoo.

Games

(Images via cdx-thegame, gettheglass)

Flash games aren’t all shooting spaceships and racing cars. CDX is a dark point and click that starts one out in a room with no apparent exit… while Get the Glass is a thinly veiled sponsorship for milk that has some surprisingly quality art.

Making Faces

(Images via flashface, mono-1)

If one fancies themselves a great portrait artist, these may be the sites for you. Flash Face is an incredibly robust face creation tool that allows one to come up with a funny portrait within minutes, or an eerily realistic one over a longer time period. Monoface is just plain fun. Created by an agency, this face shuffle mixes different parts of the agency’s employees faces into a million hilarious combinations.

Educational

(Images via wechoosethemoon, history)

Want a little more substance while browsing the internet at work? We Choose the Moon is an immersive experience that carries one through the entire moon launch process from lift off to landing. Civil War 150 celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with clean style and interestingly interactive infographics.

Decorating Help

(Images via colorschemedesigner, idecorabili)

Not many people know their way around a color wheel anymore, and now there’s no need! With the help of Color Scheme Designer, one can simply pick a color they like, and they’re presented with an entire color scheme that is perfectly complimentary. Idecorabili is a fun way to choose the color of one’s cabinet from home, before ordering it from the company. If only every online retailer made choosing colors this much fun!

Color Fun

(Images via weavesilk, flashmonkey, wonderfl, koalastothemax)

Bored for a moment, and want to add some color to the day? Try out Weave Silk, a pretty and easy way to fool around with beautiful light. Flash Monkey’s Colorwall is of an equal bent, while Wonderfl allows one to swirl colors into beautiful formations, and Koalas to the Max creates an oddly enjoyable experience that involves hovering over different circles and watching them split into a million more.

Artistic Tendencies?

(Images via jacksonpollock, zefrank, sketchswap)

In the mood to share art with the world? If one wants to splash paint around without the mess, Jackson Pollock is a great destination. In the mood to draw, but don’t have the time or the talent? Ze Frank’s Scribbler has the hook up. Sketchswap is a really fun idea – make a sketch and click submit, and someone else will receive your image, as you receive one from another random stranger.

Virtual Travel

(Images via pixelcase, theircircularlife)

Want to explore a European city without leaving the cubicle? Their Circular Life is the site for you. It allows one to watch the day go by in several spots throughout the world. If one would prefer staying in the US, take a high flying tour of New York City with the help of Pixelcase.

You might think web designers would strive for the most cutting-edge, up-to-the-moment look possible considering the 21st-century nature of the medium. But websites don’t all have to be sleek and modern – sometimes, a theme featuring old-fashioned signs, retro typography and photographs, vintage products and illustrations straight off World War II propaganda posters can be surprisingly fresh. These 15 websites take us back to another age in a manner that’s appropriate for each site’s subject matter.

Hipstery

A concept that’s a bit zany needs a zany website, and Hipstery certainly has that with its psychedelic Leave it to Beaver vibe. The site allows users to take a quiz about their likes and dislikes and then receive a mystery t-shirt in the mail.

Dollar Dreadful

With an engraved-style header image including two portraits of the site’s founders, Dollar Dreadful could easily be a newspaper from 1882 – down to the row of old-fashioned ads for things like “Muccatypo, fine letter forms & moustache twirling.” Hawking short stories “for the distinguished reader or the particularly wealthy dunder-head”, Dollar Dreadful gets a lot less antique-looking once you click on the storefront.

MediaBOOM

MediaBOOM isn’t trying to convince anyone that they provide “modern design for a modern word”, or any such nonsense. But they do use cutting-edge technology to provide interactive websites for clients like Jim Beam and Yale University. The layered, scrapbook-style design of their own site even comes with a vintage radio soundtrack.

The New York Moon

The way that The New York Moon’s “radio feed” is delivered to its website is anything but vintage: it’s a direct stream from Twitter. But that doesn’t mean they can’t cleave to the same aesthetics that they have loved since they first began transmission a century ago. And, somehow, it works. As they say themselves: “the internet is the dream of ham radio fulfilled. It’s a place for individuals to connect and broadcast with little obstruction.”

Small Stone Recordings

Like those who yearn for the days when families gathered around radios, many musicians aren’t thrilled about the transition from analog to digital and how it has affected sound. Perhaps that sentiment is behind the rock n’ roll throwback look of the Small Stones Recordings website.

Style 4U

Pairing vintage-looking photos and details like gloves, old television sets and film strip image borders with a fresh color scheme, Italian site Style 4U marries an aged aesthetic with the latest in fashion.

CSS Tinderbox

With a look that’s more Soviet propaganda than 21st century web template source, CSS Tinderbox certainly stands out from all the other websites offering similar products, though their “frameworks for the web design proletariat” are more run-of-the-mill.

Island Photobooth

Photo booths were all the rage back in the ’60s, but they’ve gotten big updates for modern times – like digital touch screens and personalized custom graphics. Island Photobooth, a Vancouver company that rents out photo booths for events, illustrates their tagline “vintage style meets digital technology”.

Target Scope

How do you get command of your brand? Hire some WWII-era troops, apparently. Dallas advertising agency Target Scope has an engaging military-themed interactive website that features plane shadows flying by on occasion, bullet holes and, yes, a scope that you use to browse the top navigation bar.

Custom Design

The buzzing, pixelated static of an analog television isn’t the only thing on the Custom Design website that will take you back in time. Check out the script font, the vintage furniture, and even the rolodex on the table which stands in for a “contact” button.

Font Diner

What are you craving – a chicken basket? A milkshake? Perhaps something from the country store, or the diner’s secret recipe? Font Diner has it all, packed with all-you-can-eat retro fonts on a very dineriffic website.

Charlies Loan

Most loan websites are all business, seeking to look as professional as possible. The British Check Cashers Association decided to do something a little different with the ‘Charlies Loan’ website, which oddly – or not – prominently features a photo of Charlie Chaplin on the home page.

Ernest Hemingway Collection

If Ernest Hemingway were around today, would he have anything to do with websites? Fans and scholars could debate that question, but in any case, the late author’s website pays fitting tribute to a man from another time. The site is designed to look like a desktop scattered with change, photos, a passport and a cup of coffee.

Level 2D

Interactive and scenic, the Level 2D website has the look of a vintage full-service garage complete with a flickering sign and garage bays for web design and hosting.

Visit Cascadia

Truck drivers get to see a lot of American landscapes, including those that have remained relatively unchanged over the decades. But imagine if they had an idyllic all-American town of their very own, with attractions like a truck-only drive-thru, the World’s Largest Cupholder and a beef jerky tasting room. The ‘Visit Cascadia’ website brings this imaginary town to life with nostalgic imagery.

When the world wide web first came into popular use in the ’90s, it wasn’t pretty. Cold, visually uninteresting and – well – ugly, websites put functionality far before form and were anything but inviting. So for everyone who loves to run their hands along a pleasing texture, from fine linen canvas to a big soft sweater, textured images in modern web design are a warm and comforting reminder of the three-dimensional, sensual real world.

Big Sweater Design

Vincent Maglione’s last name translates roughly from Italian as “big sweater”. So not only did Maglione name his web design company “Big Sweater Design”, he tied the reference in to his portfolio website in the most memorable way possible, using a knit sweater texture for the background.

Real Visuals

For a company that calls itself “Real Visuals”, this architectural rendering, 3D interior design and 3D architecture firm certainly illustrates the concept well on its own website with a realistic wood plank background as well as fabric, paper and other textured images.

Rock Point

Outdoor equipment company Rock Point outfitted its website with a highly appropriate – both for its name and its business – rough rock textured background. The background serves as a nicely contrasting backdrop for all the slick modern merchandise, pulling in a reference to the great outdoors.

Przeznaczenie.eu

With blood spatters on cracked dirty pavement, this website is nothing if not gritty, perfectly suited for an interactive “serial mystery-crime” game.

Made to Kill

Not all web background textures have to be literal and attention-grabbing. The subtlety of the chalky black paper on the website for Made to Kill, a web design firm, keeps the focus on the company’s portfolio.

The Brown Corporation

What else would you expect from ‘The Brown Corporation‘, a company that makes lightweight portable cardboard toilets with a fecal mascot named ‘Jack’, but a brown cardboard background on their website? Hey, it works.

Texture Lovers

Something tells us the folks at ‘Texture Lovers‘ love texture. Just a hunch. But for all their affection for tactile surfaces, they kept the leathery background of their own website low-key, making sure that the texture samples they produce are the center of attention.

Alpine Meadows

Simple and yet much more visually interesting than a flat color, the plaid fabric background and fraying ribbon nav bar on the Alpine Meadows website are nicely done.

Bern Unlimited

Would the Bern Unlimited website be anywhere near as eye-catching without the torn cardboard header and side bar backgrounds? Clearly scanned from real boxes, this texture is one-of-a-kind.

Carbonica

What does brown kraft paper and linen fabric say to you? Organic, natural, earth-friendly? Perfect, because that’s exactly what Carbonica, a carbon offsetting service, is all about.

The Darling Tree

Another case of supreme subtlety, Susannah Conway’s website has a barely discernible fabric-textured background that plays up the illustrative quality of the graphics.

Bridge 55

A store for urban men should have an urban-looking website. Bridge 55 clothing pulls it off well with a cracking plaster wall, revealing bricks beneath.

Narfstuff

With a combination of watercolor web design, paper textures and even polaroid borders on images, the Narfstuff website is a visual buffet of beautiful textures.

The Organic Supermarket

There’s something about moss that just makes you want to reach out and touch it. Perhaps Ireland’s Organic Supermarket is hoping that this earthy, green background will make you reach right through your screen and pick up a few bags of groceries while you’re at it.

Wall Swaps

Any analog types that bemoan the loss of physicality in the computer age, especially those who love to pin inspiration and ideas on the wall, will love the cork board design of ‘Wall Swaps‘, which basically creates a digital version of a bulletin board.

Nothing softens the harshness of the world wide web like a little watercolor. Whether used as a sheer splash of color on an otherwise minimalist website or as the basis of an entire web design, watercolor can be understated or bold, ethereal or grungy. These 14 websites are a showcase of artistic flair, with watercolor effects created both digitally and the old-fashioned way.

Electric Pulp

This web design firm advertises its services well with an eye-catching, visually dynamic and organic wood background and just a hint of watercolor effect at the very top and in a few details further down the page. A great example of beautiful balance in watercolor web design.

Agami Creative

Appropriately enough for a firm with ‘creative’ in its very name, this website is bold and colorful, using watercolor as one of the main visual elements on the page. But even as loose and messy as watercolor can be, the overall design remains readable and cohesive with sans-serif typeface and a tight color scheme.

Fabien Barral

How else to set off a vibrant splash of watercolor but with plenty of white space? This is the older website of designer Fabien Barral, whose new website also features stunning watercolor effects. In both cases, the strokes of a watercolor brush reveal celestial imagery and text that is hidden in the white background.

Weberica

Watercolor is often used on the web in two forms: organic, and grungy. The web design firm ‘Weberica’ combines both with a messy army-green background and illustrations of flowers and birds.

Viget Inspire

Web consulting firm Viget Labs uses watercolor in its most natural iteration – as part of a landscape. The mountainous, forested header image combined with sketches here and there – and plenty of white space to ease eye strain and provide room to breathe – is soft, yet fresh and modern.

Ali Felski

Graphic designer Ali Felski’s website is not watercolor, per se. However, a gradient within the same color family, from deepest midnight blue down into bright white, provides a similar look to great effect.

Five Points Interactive

The overarching theme of designer Jeralyn Merideth’s website? Paper. Notebook paper, memo paper, paper tags and yes, watercolor paper. There is no actual watercolor paint in the design, just a suggestion of texture and pleasing pastel colors.

Boompa

Now here’s a website that really allows watercolor art to shine. The entire background is made up of watercolor images of trees, clouds, rain, birds… nature, essentially. Just the right vibe for this independent Canadian record label.

Le Bloe

Almost certainly, the ‘watercolor’ at LeBloe.com was created using a computer, but it’s no less effective, and the choice of watery blues and purples just intensifies the beauty of the effect.

Corvus Art

The Corvus website is no stranger to design accolades, included in all sorts of web design lists, and with good reason. Designer Jessica Miller “gets a lot of her inspiration from wildlife, and wanted to incorporate her love of nature into her business life. This often shows in her design style, which has been described as ‘organic’ and ‘ethereal’.”

Toucouleur

Lovers of minimalist design may turn their heads in utter shock at the “busy-ness” of the Toucouleur website, but many others will fall in love with the carefree jumble of imagery which includes bits of watercolor here and there beyond all the photos, drawings, texture and decorative elements.

Washtenaw Community College

The Washtenaw Community College website is a great example of using just a touch of watercolor to enhance an otherwise simple design. The drawing that makes up the background of the main column on the page creeps upward in a tuft of blue sky and white clouds.

Deep Roots & Wide Wings

There’s something grounding about the use of paper-inspired imagery on the web. A blog called ‘Deep Roots & Wide Wings‘ features a soft splash of watercolor but also the edge of a piece of watercolor paper, carefully torn to suggest the shape of hills.

The Croquis

‘The Croquis’ – an online portfolio of fashion illustrations – is a minimalist version of watercolor on the web, perfectly suited to the subject matter but using just one colorful watercolor element against a stark white background for a subtle yet somehow still dramatic effect.