Dolby Digital Logo

Dolby Digital Logo PNG

Visualization symbolically reflecting the imprinting of text on perforated film represents the Dolby sound system. The monochrome color palette emphasizes style and makes the Dolby Digital logo attractive and recognizable in its two variations.

Meaning and History

The Dolby Digital trademark is known worldwide, as it often appears at the beginning of feature films, video games, and television programs. The owning company registered it along with the trademark to emphasize the identity of the corporate style.

The emblem features the name of the audio technology, which bears the name of its creator, inventor, and engineer, Ray Milton Dolby. He founded the specialized company Dolby Labs in 1965. Around the same time (in 1967), its original logo appeared. But it is nothing like the modern version of “Double D,” which was practically invented from scratch by designers.

What is Dolby Digital?

Dolby Digital is an audio compression format that allows reducing the file size while maintaining high sound quality. It was developed by the American company Dolby Laboratories, Inc., and is often used for recording and playback of sound in cinema, television broadcasts, and video games. This audio encoding standard achieves cinematic sound.

1995 – 2007

From the beginning, the brand’s logo was multi-structured and ambiguous. Each of its elements reminds one of the surname, technology, or historical fact. In the upper left corner is a double icon – two letters, “D,” placed mirror to each other. They are located on a dark background and look like cuts in vertical rectangles. To their right is another rectangle – horizontal, white, with a wide black edge and a strict inscription “Dolby” in the middle. Below them is the word “Digital,” stretched across the length of the upper elements to balance the logo. It has no frame.

2003 – 2007

While retaining the previous structure and style of the logo, designers made minimal changes. They just enlarged the letters of the Dolby inscription, and now it occupies all the space of the rectangle.

2007 – today

In the updated version, developers combined the vertical rectangles containing the two “D” letters and made one large figure with white cuts. They removed the border from the word “Dolby” and, conversely, added it to the “Digital” inscription. But it’s not a standard border, but two thin lines joined at an angle.

2012 – today

In 2012, another current version was released. The letters “Dolby” in it are tightly moved together, and the word “Digital” is entirely moved to the other side – to the left, closer to the black rectangle. It has been enlarged to the height of two lines. Borders and lines disappeared.

Font and Colors

The trademark features a horizontal rectangle with two semicircles. These are the letters “D,” facing each other with the semi-oval side. They have several meanings.

• Firstly, it’s the stylized abbreviation of the full name of the technology, Dolby Digital.
• Secondly, it’s the initials of the Dolby brothers, demonstrating the brand’s origin.

Moreover, the drawing resembles the arrangement of the optical soundtrack on film prints. Dolby Digital is printed on the perforation holes of the film, i.e., between the holes on its flexible substrate. The two “D” letters represent these very holes, and the rectangle acts as a fragment of photographic material.

Next to the image is the inscription: “Dolby Stereo Digital” (from 1992 to 1995) or “Dolby Digital” (from 1995 to the present). Until 2007, the first word was in a rectangular frame. In 2007, it disappeared – it was replaced by a long horizontal bar. In 2012, the bar was removed, leaving only the brand name.

The letters are done in a strict sans-serif font, close to Gustan Medium by Lux Typographic Studio. The monochromatic palette emphasizes the style of printed text. Moreover, the emblem has two officially approved colors: black on a white background and white on black.

Dolby Digital color codes

Video