A better lorem ipsum
gutenberg_ipsum2— A better lorem ipsumgutenberg_ipsum2 is a simple wrapper function for Markovify that allows you to generate semi-sensical filler text with Markov chains. Because it is a script, it’s easy to use its output in other applications, such as TextExpander and Keyboard Maestro.
This uses uv to manage virtual environments and package installation. Install uv and then run this:
uv sync
To generate five sentences from Dickens’s David Copperfield, navigate to this directory in a terminal and run:
uv run gutenberg_ipsum2.py corpora/copperfield.txt 5
In general, follow this syntax:
uv run gutenberg_ipsum2.py corpus [num_sentences]
Instead of generating all your text in a terminal and copying/pasting it to other applications, it’s best to use gutenberg_ipsum2 with a program like TextExpander.
For instance, we can make a new shell script snippet to put 5 sentences of A Christmas Carol-esque text where our cursor is. Create a new snippet with the following script:
#!/usr/bin/env bashcd path/to/gutenberg-ipsum2/; uv run gutenberg_ipsum2.py corpora/christmascarol.txt 5
Then add an abbreviation for the snippet like ;ipchris. I prefix all mine with ;ip for “ipsum”.
In any application, type ;ipchris and get fresh new Dickens-trained text!
You can add whatever texts you want. Simply place them in the corpora folder (or anywhere really), and create new snippets in TextExpander to point to them. Here’s a sampling of my collection:
