greeking
English
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Inadvertent_greeking_in_The_Straits_Times_%2826_April_2014%29%2C_Singapore_-_20140428.jpg/220px-Inadvertent_greeking_in_The_Straits_Times_%2826_April_2014%29%2C_Singapore_-_20140428.jpg)
Etymology
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈɡɹiːkɪŋ/
Audio (RP): (file) - Rhymes: -iːkɪŋ
- Hyphenation: greek‧ing
Noun
greeking (uncountable)
- (computing, typography) Nonsense text or graphics inserted into a document as a placeholder to create a dummy layout, or to demonstrate a type font; the practice of using such placeholder text or graphics. [from 20th c.]
- 2002, Deke McClelland, “The Interface”, in Real World Adobe Illustrator 10, Berkeley, Calif.: Peachpit Press, →ISBN, pages 46–47:
- If text gets smaller than this value, [Adobe] Illustrator shows the text blocks as gray bars, an operation called greeking. Both type size and view size figure into the equation, so that 6-point type greeks at 100-percent view size and 12-point type greeks at 50 percent. Greeking speeds the screen display because gray bars are easier to draw than individual characters.
- 2007, David Blatner, Gene Gable, Real World QuarkXPress 7, Berkeley, Calif.: Peachpit Press, →ISBN:
- Designers have long worked with a concept known as greeking. Greeking is a method of drawing gray bars to represent blocks of text rather than taking the time to image them all on the screen. […] Unless you really want to see every character of every word at every size, there's hardly any reason to turn greeking off.
- 2007, Susan E. L. Lake, Karen Bean, “Using Other Design Tools”, in The Business of Technology: Digital Desktop Publishing, Mason, Oh.: Thompson/South-Western, →ISBN, page 109:
- The use of greeking (also called dummy text) allows page designers to place text on a page without the actual content acting as a distraction. The history of greeking is unclear, but it was first used in the middle of the 20th century. The text was based on the words of Cicero, a Roman leader whose writings are admired. The language he spoke and wrote was Latin rather than Greek, so the naming of this dummy text is misleading.
See also
Verb
greeking
- present participle of greek.