Print and Digital Design: What Makes Them Unique?

Today, when most of the market is occupied by digital graphics designs. We can’t say print designs have gone out of the frame. Print designs as well as digital designs, both have their own significance in the industry. While both share fundamental design principles, they cater to different mediums and audiences.

Print designs are not very different from digital designs. The only difference between them is that digital design is what you see on your mobile screen, websites, etc. Whereas, a print design is what you see on roadside billboards, magazines, and postcards when you send it to someone. 

However, there are still a few areas where they are apart. Let’s know their differences, and which one is better. 

What is Print Design?

Print designs are as simple as they sound, designs that can be printed on physical material are what we call- Print designs.

They are not very different from digital designs. The only difference between them is that digital design is what you see on your mobile screen, websites, etc. Whereas, a print design is what you see on roadside billboards, magazines, and postcards when you send it to someone. 

Print designs are the traditional form of visual communication. Which requires a solid understanding of typography, color, grading, and whatnot. You can also say, they are a bit more difficult to design, as you need to make a separate one for every size, and format. 

Print designs need to be created with a strong focus on certain areas- their size, shape, layouts, color requirements, etc. Only if you don’t want your print output to look blurry, and unprofessional. 

What are Digital Designs?

Digital designs are the ones that you see on every digital screen. The advertisement you see on this website is also an example of digital design. 

In short, digital designs are the visual designs that you will find on every part of the digital screen, unlike print designs, where you have to spend your days and nights focusing on its size, format, and perfect output. Digital designs are quite flexible in their format. 

Digital design allows interactive, motion graphics, and user engagement. However, you will need a strong understanding of the ever-evolving fields- UI/UX, web technologies, and responsive design. 

The key difference between print and digital designs:

1. Medium and accessibility:

The basic difference between the two- print designs and digital designs is the ‘Medium’ they deal in. Print designs are tangible, and use physical format to convey their message to their audience. 

Print designs are meant for physical interaction that is the reason they require high-quality printing and careful material selection. For printing designs, you need high-quality premium paper, foil stamping, and embossing. And every other thing that will help in converting your mare prints into premium visuals on print material. 

Talking about digital designs, they are created on screens, for screens. And you can access them at any point in time, anywhere, from anywhere. You get easy access to share it, modify it, change it, and update it at any point in time. 

In short, digital designs are easy to implement. The digital platforms provide you an opportunity to add interactive elements to your design that make them more engaging. 

 2. Color usage and reproduction:

What color you use, and how you produce is a huge factor that you can’t miss. Doesn’t matter whether you produce a digital design or print design.

Color theory plays a major role in making any print design attractive. Where digital screen designs use the color palette- RGB (Red, Green, Blue). Print designs use the palette- CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). 

Why?

The answer is simple- the print materials are usually of white base, whereas the digital screens start with a black cast.  This is the sole reason why both of these designs use a whole different color palette. 

As a designer, your first task should be to verify the paper quality, and the variations of printing techniques to be used. For consistent branding, make sure you use Pantone colors for print designs.

Digital designs use the base of RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) color models, where the colors are created through light. Digital screens can showcase vibrant colors, however, the colors may appear differently across various devices. That is the reason why designers use hex codes to ensure consistency across web and digital apps.

3. Resolution and image quality:

Resolution plays a major role in making or breaking your designs, doesn’t matter if you are building a print or a digital one. It is what gives clarity to your message, and puts an impression on your audiences. 

Usually, print designs require a high image quality level as compared to digital designs. You will need to build a print design of not less than 300 DPI. This provides clarity and sharpness to your designs when printed. 

Whereas, for digital designs, you don’t have to put so much pressure, a 72 DPI image works well. You can say that print designs use high-quality images whereas digital designs typically use lower resolution. 

The reason is pretty obvious, digital screens have fixed pixel densities. They have to be optimized for faster loading without compromising on quality. 

4. Typography consideration:

In print designs, you get the freedom to choose from a variety of fonts, you can choose any without being restricted. All you need to consider is a few factors. The typography you use should be easy to read, and understand, well-structured, and appropriate for your target audience. 

Whereas, for digital designs, your options for choosing fonts are quite limited. You can choose only the web-safe fonts or those which can be embedded using CSS. Readability across different devices and screen sizes is a major concern, making responsive typography essential.

One of the most commonly used font styles in digital designs are Arial, and Roboto, due to their sleek, clean, and modern appearance. 

If you are hesitant about getting into size issues and don’t want to ruin your design. Don’t be, the digital print design agency, Frisco, is here to help!

Which one is better?

This question is quite tough to answer, as both of them have their own way of attracting audience attention, via different mediums. Well, if we have to answer this question, the answer will always be subjective. It all depends on what work, purpose, and target audience you are aiming for. 

Where print designs work best for branding material, luxury packaging, magazines, and corporate reports. That communicates with your audience via a physical medium. Digital designs work best for Websites, social media marketing, online advertising, and mobile applications. Where our main purpose is to enhance interactivity and connectivity with our audience. 

Conclusion:

Today, when digital designs have stirred the market, print designs are still quite important. Print designs are a crucial aspect of visual communication despite the digital boom. 

In this blog, we have discussed every detail you need to know before you build designs. If you still have confusion and are hesitant about the idea of printing designs. Don’t be, we got you! AIdesigns is one of the best digital print design agencies in Frisco with years of experience in the niche.