The Guardian newspaper has unveiled its new tabloid look, with its publisher aiming to save millions of pounds as a result of the redesign.

The left-leaning daily has downsized from its mid-size Berliner format, and replaced its well-known blue and white masthead with simple black lettering.

The new look is part of a three-year plan aiming to ensure Guardian News & Media (GNM) breaks even by 2019.

Monday’s edition features an exclusive story about medical students who the paper said have been “urged to volunteer as the NHS winter crisis worsens”, as well as a picture of US Army whistle-blower Chelsea Manning who is to run for the senate.

Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner described the new paper as “bold, striking and beautiful”.

She said: “Since we announced our plans to change format seven months ago, it’s been an exhilarating period of creativity, imagination and focus, and I’m thrilled with the result: a new paper that feels bold, striking and beautiful, and still unmistakably The Guardian.”

Ms Viner added that it is hoped the money-saving move can ensure the future of the media organisation.

She said: “Our move to tabloid format is a big step towards making The Guardian financially sustainable and ensuring we can continue to invest in agenda-setting journalism for generations to come.”

The new design has “readability at its heart” GNM’s executive creative director Alex Breuer said.

He said: “At the forefront is the bold new masthead, which represents The Guardian’s place and purpose in today’s turbulent news agenda.

A video previewing the launch was voiced by actress Maxine Peake who described the newspaper as providing a “space for big ideas”.

The media group said its website, which currently attracts 150 million monthly unique browsers worldwide, will also undergo a redesign.

The revamp, which will also apply to the Guardian’s sister Sunday paper The Observer, comes more than a decade after millions of pounds were spent on making the move from broadsheet.

The changes, announced last summer, will result in the closure of Guardian Media Group’s (GMG) printing sites in Trafford, Manchester, and Stratford in east London.

Printing will instead be outsourced to presses run by Trinity Mirror, owner of the Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People tabloids, and see the newspapers printed in Scotland for the first time.

The Berliner format was the brainchild of Ms Viner’s predecessor, Alan Rusbridger, who stepped down in 2015 after 20 years.