The German designer Christian Bauer created the display font in 1997. This font is based on the basic forms of Transitional faces of the 17th century. The outer contours of the letters are purposely raw and irregular, much like alphabets printed on low-quality paper. The legibility of the font is thus reduced, making it necessary to use this font only for shorter texts or headlines, but it is exactly this characteristic which lends Linotype Compendio its distinctiveness. Linotype Compendio is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from the entries of the 2nd International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. Linotype Compendio is a trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions, exclusively licensed through Linotype GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.