If I remember correctly, I’ve responded positively to all of your proposed solutions. The issue is that every one of them relies on third‑party tools and adds at least one extra step to the workflow.
The reason I haven’t followed up with a concrete use case is that I’ve more or less stopped using AT3 due to the limitations in its export and interchange formats.
I can’t even generate a PDF or SVG of my timeline because the Aeon team won’t update the outdated libraries they rely on, which still enforce the artificial 14.4k × 14.4k size limit from PDF v1.4.
If you’re running into Aeon Timeline’s 14.4k × 14.4k PDF limit, one practical workaround is to export whatever resolution AT allows and then run that image through an AI upscaler. Modern upscalers don’t just stretch pixels; they reconstruct edges, text, and shapes using trained models, and the results can be surprisingly sharp and readable. Several tools handle this well. Upscayl is a free, open‑source option that runs locally on Windows, macOS, and Linux and produces very clean results for diagrams and UI‑style graphics. There are others for the desktop, of course, some paid. Plus there are browser‑based upscalers.
It’s not a perfect substitute for native high‑resolution export, but it can turn a constrained AT export into something far more usable for printing, sharing, or archiving.
I agree completely. By “prototype,” however, I mean that my tools should give an impression of what the export result might look like. As a starting point for discussion about specifications, so to speak. However, as I suspected at the time, the use of third-party scripts poses a certain hurdle for many users- So I share @SCN’s view that the ideal solution is to focus on cooperation with a mature and proven secondary application like Scrivener.
The funny thing about the matter is that I don’t use AT3 or Obsidian myself, and I wrote all these tools primarily for my own evaluation of these applications.
By the way: I managed to fully and optimally integrate AT 2 into my self-built work environment. Unfortunately, it seems that neither Aeon nor L&L software (I love Scapple) can be run on Linux. It’s likely due to license verification.
I know, but details is lost when you can’t export a timeline with a day level scale…
Most of my historical research that I want timelines for are project that span decades with thousands of events, some of those events are just one day or a few days events…
And why on earth do they have arbitrary limitations on the SVG format, it’s a vector format…???
Peter, I like all of your projects, even though I don’t use it, I have been looking at your writing tools and the stuff you have made around that…
Your Python scripts was what got me starting to look into python scripting myself, but my workflow and needs are quite different than a writers workflow and needs, we have had a lot of good discussions in this forum and both you and SCN has always had a lot of great ideas that the Aeon team actually should have listen to…
That’s why I have told them more than once to actually read the posts in this forum…
I don’t know about Scapple, but Scrivener for Windows can be made to run on Linux, if the many Scrivener forum discussions are any indication. (I’ve never tried it myself, as I don’t run Linux.)
Could this possibly be the Linux version that was available for free several years ago? As far as I know, that variant has been discontinued.
With Scapple, “For Linux” even appears in the startup message, but it didn’t work for me. I asked support about it, but didn’t receive a clear statement.
No. Folks are running Scrivener for Windows on Linux using something like Wine, though there are alternatives to Wine that folks also use. Check out the many discussions on the Scrivener forum. I don’t really follow them that closely, TBH, but I know that AmberV, a Scrivener employee who is directly involved in developing Scrivener for Windows, runs it on Linux.
@SCN Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. I actually wanted to switch to the end of Win 10, but then my hardware broke down, and I got a new PC with Win 11. So another postponement. But enough off-topic…
I should just like to add that I have written about my expectations for markdown exports and my intended workflow extensively. One issue though is that these discussions were mostly in the beta forums. After all, it was during the beta that the markdown export was added. In my posts I have tried to suggest ways to improve markdown exports in practical ways but my views have been unanswered and ignored. I shan’t share them again as it has felt largely a waste of time. And, whilst the discussion continues to centre around Scrivener (not everyone uses Scrivener) I feel that a huge opportunity to improve markdown export for everyone may be wasted.
Though I’ve been quite happy with the new features, especially custom tabs, I didn’t fully appreciate until now the limitations of the markdown export functionality, despite considerable user feedback before and during the beta.
Ah, @SCN i wouldn’t say you were guilty of anything. You are a valued and highly thought of contributor to this community.
My point was more to the potential wasted opportunity of opening AT3 up to a much wider user base. Whether that be the kind of integration @Jaran desires, or a markdown, or even Word export which feels currently underdeveloped for writers and other users who choose to use software other than Scrivener (or Ulysses). When textual export was aired as an upcoming feature I was hopeful. And whilst its implementation is likely not fully settled, the lack of responses to my suggestions for improvements is disheartening.
Since AT 3.0 was released I have wanted nothing more than it to succeed big time. I have kept a consistent license, tested alphas, betas, written articles, suffered crashes and inconveniences, well aware that I would be exposed to such issues as a beta tester, offered feedback, given an interview, taken part in discussions, completed surveys. All of which have taken significant time out of my day job. I am not saying I am always right in my views, or that I should be listened to more than anyone else. But one thing is sure. No one could ever accuse me of not presenting clear, cogent suggestions and feedback as to how to improve AT. And there have been generalised suggestions in this thread that users have somehow been lacking. Which is misinformed and unhelpful.
Totally agree. It is one the few sync solutions I’ve ever used that is flawless; and it works in both directions.
I use it on Windows. I love how it shuts down a existing Scivener instance and restarts it.
That said, I did mutter a few expletives early on as I was trying to figure out how it worked. One has to translate between two entirely different application environments and, most importantly, kick the tires a few times and visually look at both sides of the sync equation.
An edit window to allow free form use of the summary (or any) text field.
To illustrate what I’ve seen as a problem, write a 300 word summary for an event. If you feel like those candidates in Men In Black trying to fill out forms in impossible circumstances, that’s the problem.
Another incredibly useful plugin for writers has joined the Obsidian ecosystem: Storyline . Its arrival makes the need for a robust, configurable Markdown export even more pressing. Combined with Charted Roots and several other plugins, Obsidian has become an excellent tool for both writers and researchers who want to leverage the open data format that Markdown provides.
The StoryLine plug-in looks incredibly useful @Jaran. Quick question, why not just do all of the work in Obsidian, instead of going via Aeon Timeline? Asked from a perspective of total naivety regarding your workflow so I am sure there must be a reason.
I’m tending to do the majority of my planning work directly in Ulysses now, as an example, rather than wait for a flexible and usable markdown export option.
I like Obsidian but it lacks a lot of the quality of life writing tools I prefer. Although that is changing over time.
