Sächsisch Ipsum
Dummy text generator in Saxon dialect
A browser-based placeholder text generator replacing Latin Lorem Ipsum with authentic Upper Saxon dialect. Single-file app — no build step, no npm, no framework.
- —Three output modes: paragraphs, sentences, or word list — quantity adjustable via slider
- —Built-in Saxon–German glossary (30 entries + extended modal) and phonetics reference
- —Dark mode derived from a night photo of Coswig — background switches from day to night video
- —Entire application ships as a single index.html — no build step, no dependencies
- —GitLab CI/CD deploys in under 30 seconds via SFTP on every push to main
- —Email harvesting protection: contact address assembled from parts at runtime
Sächsisch Ipsum is a browser-based placeholder text generator that replaces the centuries-old Latin "Lorem Ipsum" with authentic Upper Saxon dialect — the warm, unmistakable vernacular spoken in Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz, and the Erzgebirge. Where classical dummy text offers meaningless syllables from Cicero, Sächsisch Ipsum delivers phrases like "Nu guggema, da kommd ja der Nieslbriem schon widda!" — and if you don't speak Saxon, there's a built-in dictionary to help.
The project is a deliberate exercise in constraint: the entire application lives in a single index.html file. No build step, no npm, no framework. Open the file in a browser and it works. This simplicity is not a limitation — it is the point.
Features
The generator offers three output modes — paragraphs, individual sentences, or a word list — each adjustable via a quantity slider from one to ten units. A checkbox allows users to prepend a fixed classic opener, echoing the "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" convention that designers rely on for consistent layout previews. A single click on the generated text copies it to the clipboard, confirmed by an unobtrusive in-place feedback label.
Beyond text generation, the page includes a compact Saxon–German glossary (thirty entries on the main card, an extended version in a modal overlay), a phonetics reference explaining the characteristic sound shifts of the dialect — "nicht" becoming nisch, "schön" becoming scheee — and an FAQ modal that doubles as a tongue-in-cheek cultural introduction to Saxon identity.
Design
The visual direction evokes Saxon folk art: Georgia and Palatino Linotype for typography, a warm palette of aged parchment, deep browns, and amber. A full-page video background shows footage of Coswig, a small Saxon town on the Elbe — giving the page an immediate sense of place.
Dark mode was implemented with care. Rather than a simple color inversion, the night theme derives its palette directly from a night photograph of Coswig: deep blue-black foundations, lantern-amber accents. When dark mode activates, the background switches from the daytime video to a night recording of the same location. The theme is applied before the stylesheet loads, preventing any flash of unstyled content on return visits, and the user's preference is persisted in localStorage.
The layout uses a fixed-inset frame — a painting-frame motif with L-shaped corner ornaments — that keeps the header and footer anchored while the main content area scrolls independently. The central card is semi-transparent, allowing the landscape behind it to breathe through the interface.
Technical Implementation
All interactivity is vanilla JavaScript. A pool of approximately eighty dialect sentences and a separate word list are stored as plain arrays; the generator samples from them at random, assembles the requested quantity of paragraphs or items, and writes the result directly to the DOM. There are no state management libraries, no reactive frameworks, no external dependencies at all.
Modal overlays (FAQ, glossary, Impressum) are toggled via CSS class manipulation and close on backdrop click or the Escape key. The contact address in the Impressum is assembled from parts at runtime rather than written in plain text, providing basic email-harvesting protection.
Background Videos
Both the daytime and night-time background videos were not filmed — they were generated with AI. A single still photograph of Coswig served as the source for both clips, animated using Higgsfield AI. The result is a looping landscape that feels lived-in without requiring a camera crew or location shoot.
Deployment
Every push to the main branch triggers a GitLab CI/CD pipeline that spins up an Alpine Linux container, installs lftp, and mirrors the project directory to a shared web host over SFTP. The pipeline takes under thirty seconds from push to live.
Origin
The first iteration of this project was a Claude Code experiment: given an existing website as reference, could the AI fully replicate it from scratch? The answer was largely yes. That exercise became the seed for Sächsisch Ipsum — the structure, layout conventions, and frame motif all trace back to that initial replication attempt, then diverged into something original.
Inspired by bavaria-ipsum.de — but for the best federal state in the republic, naturally.