GST was a group of computer companies based in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, England, founded by Jeff Fenton in June 1979. The company worked with

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

Sinclair Research Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge in the 1970s. In 1980, the company entered the home computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95, at that time the cheapest personal computer ...

Torch Computers Torch Computers Ltd was a computer hardware company with origins in a 1982 joint venture between Acorn Computers and Climar Group that led to the development of the Communicator or C-series computer, a system based on the BBC Micro with a Z80 se ...

Acorn Computers Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England in 1978 by Hermann Hauser, Christopher Curry (businessman), Chris Curry and Andy Hopper. The company produced a number of computers during the 1980s with asso ...

Monotype Corporation Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use wit ...

and

Kwik-Fit Kwik Fit is a car servicing and repair company in the United Kingdom. As of , there are over six hundred Kwik Fit locations in the United Kingdom. Kwik Fit also has locations in continental Europe. History Tom Farmer opened the first Kwik Fit ...

, amongst others. The group included: * GST Computer Systems: the original name of the company. * GST Professional Services: a software consultancy that was sold and became OTIB A.T. * GST Software Products: produced

retail software Retail software is computer software, typically installed on PC-type computers post 2005, delivered via the Internet (also known as cloud-based). Traditionally this software was delivered via physical data storage media sold to end consumer but ve ...

, most notably

Timeworks Publisher Timeworks Publisher was a desktop publishing (DTP) program produced by GST Software in the United Kingdom and published by Timeworks, Inc., in the United States. It is notable as the first affordable DTP program for the IBM PC. In appearance ...

. * GST Training Centre: a class based software training provider in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, UK. * Electric Software: a games software label, producing titles for

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

s such as the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

, and

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...

-compatible models in the early 1980s. GST Computer Systems started as a contract software development company. In 1983, it became involved with Sinclair Research, producing the 68K/OS

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

(later rejected by Sinclair) and development software for the

Sinclair QL The Sinclair QL (for ''Quantum Leap'') is a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as an upper-end counterpart to the ZX Spectrum. The QL was the last desktop microcomputer from Sinclair Research aimed at the serious home use ...

. In 1985 it was approached by

Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of Home computer, home computers and Video game console, video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than ...

to port products from the QL on to the just to be launched

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

. The

word processing A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicate ...

package ''

1st Word 1st Word is a word processor program for the Atari ST developed by GST Computer Systems and published in 1985. It was given away with all ST systems from December 1985 for the next two years. Although it was relatively well received, it was a very ...

'' was bundled with every Atari ST for the first two years of its life and GST became the leading software supplier for the Atari ST platform. In 1987 GST developed its first

desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...

application, Timeworks Publisher. This was sold in the US by Timeworks, Inc. (a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

based software publisher) as

Publish-It! Timeworks Publisher was a desktop publishing (DTP) program produced by GST Software in the United Kingdom and published by Timeworks, Inc., in the United States. It is notable as the first affordable DTP program for the IBM PC. In appearance ...

. This product went on to become the world-leading budget DTP product until competition from

Microsoft Publisher Microsoft Publisher was a desktop publishing application from Microsoft, differing from Microsoft Word in that the emphasis is placed on page layout and graphic design rather than text composition and proofreading. It was discontinued in Octobe ...

in 1993 caused the eventual demise of Timeworks, Inc. The product was sold under new names including NEBS PageMagic (changed after objections from

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

), Macmillan Publisher, Canon Publisher, and many other brands, distinguished by use of the

file extension File or filing may refer to: Mechanical tools and processes * File (tool), a tool used to remove fine amounts of material from a workpiece. ** Filing (metalworking), a material removal process in manufacturing ** Nail file, a tool used to gen ...

. The latest version was sold as Greenstreet Publisher 4 and is downwards file compatible with earlier versions. In 2001 GST merged with eGames Europe as a new company, Greenstreet Software. It remains a developer and publisher of computer software for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

operating systems. In July 2008 the company was reconstructed and traded as Greenstreet Online Limited. In November 2012, Greenstreet Online Limited was declared insolvent, and went into voluntary liquidation.

References

External links

greenstreet Softwrap product announcement
Defunct software companies of the United Kingdom Software companies established in 1979 Software companies disestablished in 2001 1979 establishments in England 2001 disestablishments in England British companies disestablished in 2001 British companies established in 1979 {{ict-company-stub

See also

References

External links