How to Use Placeholder Text in Figma

Figma has a built-in Lorem ipsum shortcut, but it covers only the basics. Here's how to use placeholder text effectively across different stages of a Figma project, including the scenarios where the built-in option falls short.

The built-in shortcut

Select any text layer in Figma, open the right-click context menu, and choose **Plugins → Lorem ipsum** from the community plugins list — or, if you type directly in a text layer, the editor will auto-suggest lorem ipsum after a few characters.

For most wireframe work this is sufficient. It inserts a standard block of Latin placeholder text sized to the current text layer.

When the built-in option isn't enough

**You need a specific word count.** Figma's lorem ipsum inserts a fixed block with no configuration. If your design spec calls for a 25-word card subtitle or a 120-word article preview, paste measured text from a generator that lets you set the exact count.

**You're testing a multilingual layout.** A Japanese e-commerce screen designed with Latin placeholder text gives you no information about how Japanese glyphs will actually flow. Japanese characters are full-width, line-break differently, and have no spaces between words — the layout behaviour is entirely different. Use a lorem ipsum generator that supports Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, or whichever language your real content will be in.

**You're building a design system.** Component documentation benefits from consistent, measured placeholder strings. Generate a standard set — a 5-word label, a 15-word description, a 60-word body paragraph — and reuse them across all components so reviewers see the same text density everywhere.

A fast workflow

1. Open [LoremIpsumGenerator.io](https://loremipsumgenerator.io/) in a browser tab alongside Figma

2. Set your language, content type (words or paragraphs), and count

3. Click **Generate**, then **Copy Text**

4. Switch to Figma, select the target text layer, and paste

The generator shows a live character and word count as you adjust settings, so you can match the placeholder to your actual content spec before copying.

Tips for cleaner mockups

**Use Auto Layout with text.** Rather than manually resizing text frames after pasting, wrap text layers in Auto Layout frames. The frame expands to fit whatever text you paste, which makes swapping placeholder lengths faster.

**Clip long text intentionally.** If a component has a fixed height (a card, a table cell), set overflow to clip rather than letting text break the layout. That way the placeholder reveals the truncation behaviour your real content will trigger.

**Name your layers.** Rename text layers to describe the content they'll hold ("article-title", "card-body") rather than leaving them as the first words of their lorem ipsum content. This makes handoff to development cleaner.

**Use real numbers.** Replace any numeric placeholder text with realistic numbers for your domain. "1,234 items" reads very differently in a table than "1" or "99999".

Multilingual tips

When working on a layout that targets multiple locales, create a separate Figma page for each script direction and test placeholder text in each. Right-to-left scripts (Arabic, Hebrew) require the entire layout to mirror, not just the text. Latin lorem ipsum will not reveal RTL-specific issues — only RTL placeholder text will.