As a typographical industry standard, "lorem ipsum" is a placeholder text designed to show off a typeface or printed document. The text is an approximation of english letter frequency and combinations, meant to draw attention to how a font or layout would look without forcing people to read for meaning and content.

The text was drawn originally from Cicero's "Purposes of Good and Evil" in Latin (so the title is my translation), in a paragraph beginning:
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit (Translation: "Neither is there anyone who loves grief itself since it is grief and thus wants to obtain it"). It is not known who first used this convention to display typefaces, although it appears to have been used widely by the 1960s.