en:companias:creative_technology []

TECHNICAL DATA

NAME:Creative Technology Ltd.

ORIGIN:Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England (UK)

FOUNDED:c. 1986

STATUS:Historical (Inactive / Dissolved)

SPECIALITY:Desktop Publishing (DTP), Optical Scanner Systems, and Communication Peripherals

OFFICIAL WEB:Does not exist

Description

Creative Technology Ltd. was one of the most respected and technically advanced software development and peripheral engineering houses for the Amstrad PCW market during the second half of the 1980s. Established in Staffordshire under the direction of engineers specialized in low-level digital graphics processing, the firm became a vital pillar for desktop publishing (DTP). They managed to compete directly with contemporary giants such as Database Software and Fleet Street Publisher by commercializing a unique integrated ecosystem that merged hardware optical image scanning with professional pixel-by-pixel typographical layout creation.

Developed Hardware & Interfaces

Pro Scan (Optical Digitizer Hardware) An ingenious and advanced physical peripheral device consisting of a high-fidelity optical scanning reading head. It was coupled directly via a mechanical mount to the print head of the native Amstrad dot-matrix printer (PCW 8256/8512 range). When any physical illustration or photograph was rolled into the printer, the carriage tracked line by line projecting light; the *Pro Scan* optical sensor captured the luminescence variations off the paper and dumped raw binary data bit by bit directly into the PCW's internal memory, functioning as a low-cost drum scanner for professional image processing. Creative Technology Serial Interface A compact and cost-effective electronic expansion card designed as an affordable alternative to Amstrad's official modules (the CPS8256 interface). It plugged directly into the rear edge expansion bus of the PCW and provided a standard, pure RS-232 serial port with a physical DB-25 connector. Its physical engineering cloned the native system protocol Input/Output base addresses at the internal register level of the Z80 microprocessor, enabling standard CP/M communication tools to detect it immediately without additional drivers.

Preserved Desktop Publishing Software

MicroDesign II The company's flagship software program and one of the most robust Desktop Publishing (DTP) and Computer-Aided Design environments ever engineered for the Amstrad PCW. Specifically coded to unleash the full potential of the *Pro Scan* digitizer hardware, *MicroDesign II* provided a powerful graphical studio for processing scanned images in crisp monochrome high resolution. It featured pixel-by-pixel editing, bitmap editing, comprehensive layout creation, full matrix-based custom typographic font design, and advanced layout manipulation of text blocks that completely bypassed LocoScript's native typographical constraints.

Known Addresses & Postal Information

Headquarters and Engineering Laboratories (Creative Technology) 10 Park Street, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire (Postcode: ST14 7AG, England / United Kingdom) Original technical support and commercial mail order telephone contact: Phone 0889 567160