greeking

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Nonsense text or graphics placed in a document as a placeholder to build a mock layout or demonstrate a typeface; also the practice of using such filler.

   The mockup used greeking so the client could judge the spacing without reading the copy.

   She replaced the greeking with the final article once the editor signed off.

   Similarfiller, placeholder

   Note

   Designers and layout software use the word for two different stand-ins. In a mockup it means dummy text, often pseudo-Latin such as lorem ipsum, which lets a designer judge composition without readable copy pulling the eye. In programs like Adobe Illustrator and QuarkXPress it means drawing gray bars wherever type is too small to show legibly at the current view size. It is uncountable: a layout uses greeking, never a greeking.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of greek.

   The studio is greeking the report's pages while waiting for the final text.

   By greeking the unfinished sections, she kept the presentation looking polished.

   Note

   Here the verb is transitive, which is the easiest way to tell it from the placeholder-text noun: the verb takes an object (greeking the pages), while the noun stands alone (the greeking). Beyond pages and templates, the verb also covers obscuring a corporate logo that has not been cleared for use in a production. An older, now obsolete greeking meant something else entirely: cheating at cards.

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