Timeline maker with a true time scale

This online tool makes a history timeline in which events and periods sit on a real scale: ten years take the same length anywhere on the sheet. Dates are typed the way a textbook prints them — BC, centuries, “c.” for approximate dates — and a chronology copied from a table or a list turns into events in one paste.

How to make a timeline

Open an example or start blank, then type events in the table — a date, a title, a description. A range of dates becomes a period.

The sheet builds as you type: switch the layout and scale, choose a theme, give events categories and pictures.

Save it as PDF, PNG or PowerPoint, print it, or present it event by event.

Build a chronology of events and periods and hand it in as a print-ready sheet

Timeline

Distance on the sheet equals the time between events.

Start from an example or from a blank sheet

Every example opens as your own copy — change dates, add events, delete what you do not need.

No events on the sheet yet Double-click the timeline to add an event there; drag an event to change its date. Ctrl + wheel or pinch zooms.

Timeline title

Timeline title Author

Save and hand in

Copy link

Picture and paper settings

Paper Orientation Long timeline PNG sharpness Transparent background (PNG)

The project file (.json) keeps the whole timeline with its pictures — for moving it to another computer or keeping a copy.

Look

Theme

Font Event marker

Descriptions on the sheet Pictures on the sheet Legend Right to left

Categories and colors

A category gives events one color and a line in the legend. The eye hides a category from the sheet — the events stay in the table.

Paste a list or open a file

Paste lines like “1812 — Battle of Borodino”, cells copied from Excel or Google Sheets (a date column and an event column), or open a CSV or a saved project.

Paste a list or open a file

Drop a document here

JSON, CSV, TXT ·

How many years between two events

From To

Choose two events with dates.

My timelines

Every change is saved as you go, in this browser on this device. To move a timeline elsewhere, save the project file.

Events and periods

A date written as a range (“1700–1721”, “18th century”, “1991–present”) becomes a period — a bar along the axis. Order does not matter: the timeline sorts itself.

No events yet — add the first one or pick an example above.

Picture for an event

Choose an event in the table (or press its picture button), then pick an image. It is shrunk to a sensible size as it is added.

Choose an event in the table first.

Drop image here

JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF ·

Features

Dates as in a textbook: “753 BC”, “18th century”, “early 19th century”, “c. 1240”, “1939–1945”, “1991–present”, “66 million years ago” — in 10 languages, with a reason shown next to any date that cannot be read.

Four scales: to scale (the default), even steps, with “≈” breaks over empty centuries, and logarithmic for geology; there is no year 0, so 1 BC → AD 1 is exactly one year.

Three layouts — horizontal with labels above and below the axis, vertical for phones and long texts, and a snake that folds a long timeline onto one sheet — with no label ever overlapping or cut short.

Periods as bars, categories with colors and a legend, pictures on events, 8 themes and 6 fonts; the table fills from pasted Excel or Google Sheets cells, lines like “1812 — …” or a CSV file.

PNG at ×1–×3, SVG, PowerPoint (the sheet plus a slide per event), and a vector PDF on A4, A3 or Letter — on one page or across several sheets with glue marks.

A slideshow mode for presenting at the board, a years-between counter that shows the working, undo, a link that opens the same timeline, and several timelines kept as you work.

What it is used for

A history project: a century, a war, a reign, a country's history — with periods and BC dates
A biography of a writer or a scientist: life as a period, works and discoveries as events
Biology and geography: the eras of the Earth on a “years ago” scale
A literature timeline: when books were written against the events of their time
A family or school history for a poster or a class wall
A presentation: every event becomes a slide, with the whole timeline on the first one

How to write dates

A year (1812), a month (June 1812, 06.1812), a full date (June 24, 1812, 24.06.1812, 1812-06-24), BC (753 BC, 753 BCE, −753), a century or millennium (18th century, XVIII, 5th century BC, 2nd millennium BC, early 19th century), a decade (1920s), an approximate date (c. 1240, ca. 1240, about 1240, 1240?), a period (1700–1721, from 1700 to 1721, 1914–18, 1939-09-01 — 1945-09-02, 27 BC – AD 14), a period up to today (1991–present, since 1991), deep time (66 million years ago, 4.54 Ga, 252–66 Ma). The Gregorian calendar is used as typed; Julian dates are not converted — for that there is the “Julian ↔ Gregorian” tool.

Why a real scale matters

Most timeline templates line events up at equal steps, so 1812 and 1814 end up as far apart as 1814 and 1917 — and the sheet tells a false story about when things happened. Here the distance is the time, and when a sheet needs something else it is a deliberate choice: even steps for a dense list, a “≈” break when Ancient Rome and the space age share a page, a logarithmic scale for the age of the Earth. Dates are read in the notation of the textbook, not as negative numbers, and the sheet comes out ready to hand in.

Questions about dates and timelines

Why is there no year 0, and how do I count the years between a BC date and an AD date?

Dionysius Exiguus, who set up the count in the 6th century, started it at AD 1, and the year before it is 1 BC — zero was not yet in use in Europe. So from 1 BC to AD 1 is one year, not two. When one date is BC and the other AD, add the two numbers and subtract one: from 753 BC to AD 476 is 753 + 476 − 1 = 1228 years. The “How many years between two events” panel shows exactly this working.

Why does the 18th century begin in 1701 and not in 1700?

Because the count starts at year 1: the first century is the years 1 to 100, the second 101 to 200, and so on. The 18th century is therefore 1701–1800, and the 21st began on January 1, 2001. To find the century of a year, divide it by 100 and round up: 1812 → 18.12 → the 19th century. BC centuries run the other way: the 5th century BC is 500–401 BC.

Why does the larger number come first in “753–509 BC”?

BC years are counted backwards from the start of the era, so the older a year, the larger its number. A period that began in 753 BC and ended in 509 BC is written from the earlier year to the later one, which is the larger number to the smaller one. If you type “509–753 BC”, the tool reports that the end comes before the start instead of silently turning the period around.

How do I fit Ancient Egypt and the 20th century on one sheet?

On a true scale thousands of years of silence squeeze both ends into the corners. There are three ways out. “With breaks” cuts long empty stretches and marks the cut with “≈” — the usual choice in history textbooks. “Even steps” puts events at equal distances in order and writes the date under each. The snake layout folds a long axis into several rows of one sheet. For the history of the Earth, where billions and thousands of years meet, use the logarithmic scale.

What does a hollow marker or a pale bar on the timeline mean?

That the date is approximate: it was written with “c.”, “about”, a question mark, or as “early/late 19th century”. The legend explains the sign. On paper and in PDF the difference survives a black-and-white copy, because the marker is hollow rather than merely a different color.

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Published 27 Sep 2026 Updated 16 Oct 2026 Author: The Supreme