Do You Have A "test Phrase"?

[Old_Inkyhand]

Chwyć małżonkę, strój bądź pleśń z fugi, what means in Polish: Grab a wife, an outfit or [some] mold from a [tile] joint. It is a pangram.

 

For longer texts, I simply create something by myself. I try to keep it interesting!

 

EDIT: spelling

Edited April 2, 2016 by Old_Inkyhand

[ksm]

I use another Polish perfect panagram:

Pójdźże, kiń tę chmurność w głąb flaszy!

It means: Go, cast this melancholy into the depth of a bottle!

 

If I need to test flow for longer text, I repeat this sentence over and over.

[Old_Inkyhand]

Pójdźże, kiń tę chmurność w głąb flaszy!

This is a great pangram, the only reason for which I didn't choose this one was that a few friends of mine were already using it - and I didn't want to copy their ideas

[Rednaxela]

"Weet je nog toen de wind de bomen tergde en hen de mantels van het lichaam trok [...]"

 

The start of a beautiful poem by Hans Lodeizen, sung by Herman van Veen.

 

 

(Skip to 1:15)

 

HvV also recorded an English version, which is not too bad a translation of the original.

 

http://www.discoveen.nl/etdoyou.htm

[zwack]

Ah, a brother in the fraternity of molten lead, tin, and antimony. It was an awesome piece of machinery.

Such newfangled tomfoolery will never catch on...

 

I grew up with a 19th century Albion press in the front room along with two compositors stands. All compositing was done by hand fixed into a matrix and then printed. The press is now owned by the Scottish Centre for the History of the Book in Edinburgh.

 

As for test phrases... I tend to write the alphabet, my name, the pen name, the Ink and anything I can think of. I do like the phrase "ldap authentication" for the way it flows.

[pajaro]

The world is eaten up with the dumasses.

[jmccarty3]

Such newfangled tomfoolery will never catch on...

 

I grew up with a 19th century Albion press in the front room along with two compositors stands. All compositing was done by hand fixed into a matrix and then printed. The press is now owned by the Scottish Centre for the History of the Book in Edinburgh.

 

 

I was taught to set type by hand as well. It can sometimes be a useful skill to be able to read upside down and backwards.

[PaganArcher]

The coward believes he will live forever

If he holds back in the battle,

But in old age he shall have no peace

Though spears have spared his limbs.

 

From the Hávamál

[Oldtimer]

Silence of the Lambs

It has the letters I like to write; S and L.\

[Hedgepig]

The wonderful thing about tiggers

Is tiggers are wonderful things!

Their tops are made out of rubber

Their bottoms are made out of springs!

 

I genuinely have no idea how or why those lyrics came to be stuck in my head, other than that tiggers are indeed wonderful things.

[zwack]

I was taught to set type by hand as well. It can sometimes be a useful skill to be able to read upside down and backwards.

Frequently... I can read mirror writing well too.

 

The printing press was a hobby for my father. Books were a big thing in our house... As Iain Banks said "I remember being shocked when I discovered some of my school pals didn't have books in their homes. I thought it was like not having oxygen, or hot water."

[Recoil Rob]

Usually the words to a song that's in my head, lately it's...

 

"Little old lady got mutilated late last night, werewolves of London again!"

 

I love writing upper case "L"'s.

[D.C. in PA]

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And perhaps having the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

. . . .

And that has made all the difference.

 

"The Road Not Taken", Robert Frost

 

Just because it fits.

[Freddy]

threeseventyfour

 

Fred

 

Meat's meat..and a man's gotta eat.

 

~ Vincent Smith

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I generally test a pen by writing in my journal, and just write whatever I would have in any case. I might make a note that I'm trying my new Brand-X Neverwrite, or whatever it might be. And evaluating how the pen writes might take some of my attention away from what I'm trying to say.

 

If I'm seriously out of things to write, I might take a scrap piece of paper and just write whatever comes into my mind, nonsense phrases, bits of doggerel, words with no context. There is no regular test phrase.

 

For testing of telex machines, now, there were the usual pangrams, "the quick brown fox..." and such. And there is the sequence "RYRYRYRYRYRYRY" etc. which tests all the marks and spaces in a telex "byte". But pen and paper have no such requirements.

[zwack]

The world is eaten up with the dumasses.

Yes, Alexandre Dumas and his progeny have taken over the world. Still, all for one, and one for all.

[jmccarty3]

Yes, Alexandre Dumas and his progeny have taken over the world. Still, all for one, and one for all.

 

 

[ingridincali]

Usually the quick brown fox yada yada, but lately I started using "So long and thanks for all the fish" from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

[Guardy]

usually some variation of "Guardy", which is my common user name all around the web (which... probably says an uncomfortable amount of things about how I spend my spare time, now that I think of it) and/or "test test test".

 

I have used "And your heart is Amelia, dying to fly" occasionally - it's a line from Mary Black's song No Frontiers. Mostly because I (used to? Eh, whom am I kidding) have the worst history crush on Amelia Earhart. Plus, it's just such a nice line.
I've also used other lyrics, now and then - I really love my music.

 

If I need a longer piece of text, I often use

"When a golden girl can win

Prayer from the lips of sin

When the barren almond bears

And a little child gives away its tears

Then shall all the house be still

And peace come to Canterville"

from Oscar Wilde's "Canterville Ghost", because it's still one of my favorite pieces of fiction.