I could not believe that there is no simple "Lorem ipsum" generator available for the commandline, so I wrote one myself. This was a two-nights-project.
Update 2021-01-04: In the meantime lipsum has a cli interface as well as a GTK UI and a Plank docklet (Plank is the dock used f.e. in elementary os)
Prerequisites: gtk+-3.0, libplank-dev
Clone the repository, then do
$ cd lipsum
$ make all
$ sudo make install
Usage: lipsum [options] [count]
lipsum can output a given amount of characters, words, sentences or paragraphs of random placeholder text. If no optiopn is set, lipsum outputs paragraphs. The default count is 1, so without any options lipsum will print one paragraph.
Use the options -c, -w, -s or -p to specify what count should stand for: characters, words, sentences or paragraphs
For all available options type lipsum -h
Usage:
lipsum [OPTION...] [count]
Help Options:
-h, --help Show help options
Application Options:
-v, --version Display version number
--sentence-min=INT Minimum number of words in a sentence
--sentence-max=INT Maximum number of words in a sentence
--paragraph-min=INT Minimum number of sentences in a paragraph
--paragraph-max=INT Maximum number of sentences in a paragraph
-p, --paragraphs Count paragraphs
-s, --sentences Count sencences
-w, --words Count words
-c, --words Count characters
-l, --lorem Always start with "Lorem ipsum"
-i, --input-file Read words from input file
-H, --html Wrap paragraphs in HTML <p> Tags
Installing will also install a desktop entry so the app should appear in your application launcher (f.e. wingpanel in elementary os)
Alternatively run lipsum --gui or lipsum -g on the commandline
If you use the plank docklet, you can install lipsum as a docklet: Ctrl-Rightcklick on the dock and choose Preferences, then go to docklets and drag lipsum's icon into your dock. Then you can right click the docklet to get a selection of 5 different amounts of plain dummy text for super fast access, or left click the docklet will launch the lipsum desktop application for more control.