For amateurs, web and graphic designing may sound the same. The basic features of both web design and graphic design are the same. However, professionals find stark difference in the two. This difference can be experienced as you work on various projects as a web designer. With the passage of time, the web & graphic design differences become more pronounced.
If you are curious enough to know what the real web & graphic design differences are or how to recognize them, the following points may serve your purpose.
A creativity difference:
Both web design and graphic design comprises of designing images and graphics. However, web designers are free to utilize the web (www) for creating typography. The incorporation of graphics is limited. This is because a Web designer needs to keep in mind that the website should contain light graphics that downloads quickly. They need to maintain the resolution of the graphics and the file size.
Also Read: Image Bit Depth and processing for Visual Devices
Graphic designers need to explore their creative side to prepare graphical output. Most of the times, graphic designers do not need to worry about screen resolutions. This is because the designs created by them are mainly put up on print. They also need not know anything about coding such as HTML, something which Web designers must have knowledge about.
The designs of graphic designers are rarely used in websites because of the high resolution. There are multiple features that can be summed up to as basic web & graphic design differences.
Font Size – This is one of the major components that contribute to web & graphic design differences. Graphic designers, after designing a page can rest assure of the font size. This is because; the output of the graphic will be the same as that of input. Still, the texts need to be converted into the image format, technically said to “curve” the texts.
However, web designers can never ease on the component of font size. The designs on web pages differ according to the browser they are viewed on. Different browsers display fonts differently. Hence it may so happen that the web page that you designed so dearly and with much effort are all wasted.
This may be because it was opened in some other browser. For web designers, it is suggested to stick to conventional fonts in your site rather than using offbeat fonts.
Screen Size – For a graphic designer, this aspect is much simpler as their designs are mostly published in hardcopies. They are aware of the particular size of the display and can design accordingly.
For a web designer, designing becomes a bit difficult, as the screen size is not always known perfectly. A web designer designs for a website. These web pages are accessed through different devices of varying screen size and resolutions. Hence web designers have to keep this variable screens in mind. This can therefore be regarded as one of the major web & graphic design differences.
Controlling Layout – Designing Graphic layout is simple. Shifting of fonts, images or graphics can be done with graphic designing tools like Photoshop, Illustrator and others.
Web designs however, have a more complex process of structuring web page designs. Also the tables and HTML do not allow easy changes.
Continuity – The work of a graphic designer ends when a graphical design is finally out on prints. For a web designer, designing and improvement of a web page goes on. Minimal twist and turns are continuously put in to improve the website.
File Size – File size is an important aspect of web & graphic design differences. Graphic designers need to make the graphical image look beautiful and attractive. Hence they have been given the liberty to implement their own creativity.
Web designers are restricted to keep the web page designs light, incorporating impressive designs at the same time.
Color – Color formats form yet another point of web & graphic design differences. Graphic designers often face a problem while printing out their designs. The font colors on the machine and on print often varies a few notches.
This is because the designs on PC are on RGB mode while the prints are made on CMYK mode. This error can be rectified while designing if the graphic designer changes the mode of color input to CMYK from the default RGB.
Web designers do not face any such problems as whatever color mode they use, it is always online.