I should say, at the outset, that I approach all these questions from the perspective of someone primarily interested in the study of later medieval English literary manuscripts and printed books. From such a perspective, matters do not seem as straightforward as the question suggests. The issue is not a binary antithesis between digital or print but between the differing implications of the digital and the actual. What do you lose/gain as you move from “the real thing” to any form of surrogate representation, including the digital? Obviously, there is much of the material form of the original that neither digital nor print surrogates can adequately represent; size, shape, and color register among the most obvious aspects of the inadequacy of any form of surrogate.