Timeline 2024
Repository for latest PDF versions of the timeline project
This website contains the latest PDFs for download, linked from the QR codes on the timelines itself.
The digital edition is 1208x210mm in size or about four A4 papers in landscape. The print version has additional 5cm left and right for the print shop. It’s easier to connect the end roll covers to the timeline. The standard dimensions for the print version are 1308x210 mm. But it can be scaled to any size with a ratio 6.228:1, since almost the entire content is vector graphics. Four digital editions on A0 will be slightly smaller with 1188x206.5 and have 7mm extra border above/below.
Project repository
The work on the timeline is done and documented at the repository https://github.com/kreier/timeline.
The idea for this project started with spreadsheets in 2009. I moved to vector graphics in 2015. Then from 2023 on it was finally generated with a python program and the reportlab package to make the creation, translation and editing much faster and easier. We stopped using reportlab with version 4.6 in summer 2024 and moved to fpdf2 with 4.7 to support complicated glyph composition for languages like Khmer, Sinhala and Arabic that requires a specific shape engine like harfbuzz.
Improvement - report mistakes
If you spot a mistake, please add an issue at https://github.com/kreier/timeline/issues
Create your own PDF in a browser
To greate your own version just using a browser you can try out this Jupyter Notebook at Google Colab. Simply press Runtime - Run all. It requires less than 60 seconds. Since June 2024 there is also a version 4.7 with fpdf2 to support RTL scripts, Khmer and Sinhala.
- Jupyter notebook in Google Colab with reportlab
- Jupyter notebook in Google Colab with fpdf2
Edit your own edition in a browser
To edit the files in the browser its best to have your own Github account. Fork the timeline repository and create a Codespace within the fork. Install the needed 3 libraries (reportlab, svglib and googletranslate) and the CSV extention to Visual Studio Code. You’re good to go! Change everything you want - just using the browser.
Translation
Initially the timelines above are automatically translated with Google translate. Later each of the more than 560 strings has to be verified, and that takes time. But we made some progress:
