Print vs Online

The differences of designing for print and online, lies in the multimodal text that each medium can incorporate. Kress and Van Leeuwen (2008) said the Internet is able to incorporate multimodal text such as, writings, images, audio and video elements in it while print can only incorporate writings and images. These gives the online medium an edge as it becomes interactive and interesting to the reader.

The difference also lies in the form of dimensionality where print design is 2-dimensional while online design is 1-dimensional and N-dimensional (Nielson, 1999). That means the print design is constricted to the size of the canvas and number of pages. The design of website allows for free movement around the web as opposed to the canvas experience which limits the user by turning just a page (Nielson, 1999).

Kress and Van Leeuwen (1998) also stated that print design is limited to the canvas and the information given has to be in full. The canvas has to also accommodate images, which further limits the space.

Image courtesy of The Star

Another advantage of web design is the ability for designers to implement changes, even though the design has been published, this flexibility provides an immediate self correcting mechanism for web design (Zhu, 2005).

Image courtesy of Malaysiakini.com

References:

Nielsen, J (1999). Print vs. web design [Online]. Available at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html. {Accessed on 4th November 2008]

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T (1998). Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T (2006), Reading Images: Grammar of Visual Design, Routledge, London.

Zhu, W.L (2005), Evaluating Web Usability in PROCTOR, R. W., & VU, K.-P. L. Handbook of human factors in Web design. Mahwah, N.J., L. Erlbaum Associates