Dolby Digital Logo

Dolby Digital Logo PNG

Visualization, symbolically reflecting text printing on perforated film, represents the Dolby sound system. The monochrome color palette in its two versions, emphasizing the style, makes the Dolby Digital logo attractive and recognizable.

Meaning and History

The emblem bears the audio technology name, which bears its creator, inventor, and engineer Ray Milton Dolby. It was he who founded the specialized company Dolby Labs in 1965. Around the same time (in 1967), its original logo appeared. But it is completely different from the modern version of “Double D,” invented by the designers practically from scratch.

What is Dolby Digital?

Dolby Digital is an audio compression format that reduces 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 movies, broadcasts, and video games. This audio encoding standard enables a cinematic sound experience.

1995 – 2007

From the very beginning, the logo of this brand was multi-structured and ambiguous. Each of its elements is a reminder of a surname, technology, or historical fact. At the top left is a double icon – two “D” s, mirrored to each other. They stand against a dark background and look like slots in vertical rectangles. To the right of them is another rectangle – horizontal, white, with a wide black edge and a strict “Dolby” inscription in the middle. Below them is the word “Digital,” stretched out to the top elements’ full length to balance the logo. It has no framework.

2003 – 2007

Keeping the previous structure and style of the logo, the designers made minimal changes. They only enlarged the Dolby caption’s letters, so now it takes up all the rectangle space.

2007 – today

In the updated version, the developers have connected the vertical rectangles, which contain two “D,” and made one large shape with white slots. The border was removed from the word “Dolby” and, on the contrary, added to the inscription “Digital.” But this is not a standard edging, but two thin lines connected by an angle.

2012 – today

In 2012, another topical version was released. The letters of “Dolby” are tightly shifted in it, and the word “Digital” is generally moved to the other side – to the left, closer to the black rectangle. It is itself enlarged to fit the height of two lines. Frames and lines are gone.

Font and Colors

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

• The first is a stylized abbreviation for the full name of Dolby Digital technology.
• Second, the initials of the Dolby brothers, demonstrating the origins of the brand.

Also, the drawing resembles the location of the optical phonogram on film prints. Dolby Digital is imprinted on the film’s punch-holes, that is, between the holes on its flexible backing. Two “D” represent these very holes, and the rectangle acts as a fragment of photographic material.

Next to the picture 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 with a long horizontal bar. In 2012, the line was removed, leaving only the brand name.

The letters are executed in a strict sans serif font, close to Gustan Medium from the 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