Altium Limited is an Australian multinational software company that provides electronic design automation software, best known for its Altium Designer platform for printed circuit board (PCB) design. The company was founded in 1985 in Hobart, Tasmania, and was originally known as Protel Systems before being renamed Altium Limited in 2001. In August 2024, Altium became a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics following a US$5.9 billion acquisition.
Design and History
The current Altium corporate identity dates to August 2001, when Protel International Limited announced it had been renamed Altium Limited. The change was described as more than a name change: it established Altium as a distinct corporate masterbrand, separate from the company’s individual product brands such as Protel, P-CAD, TASKING, CircuitMaker and CAMtastic. The company stated that separating the corporate identity from the original Protel PCB design product brand would allow it to leverage the equity of all its product brands under a unified corporate platform.[1][2]
The name “Altium” is Latin for “high” or “to grow great,” a definition the company said embodied its rapid progress since its 1985 foundation and its vision to become the leading source of design solutions for electronic engineers. The rebrand also introduced the corporate motto “Think it, Design it, Build it,” which was intended to embrace the engineering process.[1][2]
Altium’s trademark usage guidelines confirm that the company maintains a formal brand kit with approved master artwork, minimum clear space specifications, and rules prohibiting distortion of proportions, font changes or color alterations. The guidelines also reference the “Altium Logo” and the “Nexar Logo” as distinct design marks within the company’s trademark portfolio.[3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The documented meaning of the Altium identity is rooted in the company’s 2001 renaming. The Latin origin of “Altium,” meaning “high” or “to grow great,” was explicitly chosen to reflect the organization’s growth and its ambition to serve as a unified source for electronic design tools. The corporate motto “Think it, Design it, Build it” was designed to communicate the company’s commitment to engineers and to embrace the engineering process itself.[1][2]
Beyond the naming rationale, Altium’s trademark guidelines describe its marks as including “words, logos, designs, slogans, colors, product shapes, product packaging, and sounds,” indicating that the company treats its visual identity as a broad set of protected assets rather than a single static mark.[3]
Typography and Design
Altium’s official trademark usage guidelines require that logo marks be used only as approved master artwork from the Altium Digital Asset Gallery, with no distortion of proportions, font changes or color alterations. The guidelines specify that a “minimum clear space” around the logo must be maintained as defined in the brand kit, and that the logo must remain legible and never appear blurry or pixelated.[3]
While the company’s guidelines confirm the existence of a formal brand kit with specific typographic and color rules, the specific typeface and exact color specifications used in the current Altium wordmark are not publicly documented in the sources reviewed.
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