Christian Bauer designed Linotype Compendio in the Transitional style, commonly associated with typefaces of the 17th and 18th centuries. The outer contours of its letters are purposely raw and irregular, much like old metal type printed on low-quality paper. The legibility of the Linotype Compendio is thus reduced, making it necessary to use this font only for shorter texts or headlines, but it is exactly this characteristic that lends the design its distinctiveness.