Is Illustrator the Right Tool to build Timeline?

[ARCrosskeee]

A timeline was developed in Indesign but I think perhaps it should be done in Illustrator.  id like to experiment with colors, layout, etc.  Does anyone have any thoughts on which is the better tool and know of any helpful tutorials?  Thanks.

[Myra Ferguson]

As far as layout and colors, I would think you could use either. If you want to do more, like be able to animate it by zooming into an area, you can bring your Illustrator file into Animate CC.

Do you have a link or image of a sample Timeline you're using as inspiration?

If you do a search for tutorials, you might want to specify "Illustrator timeline chart." Otherwise, you might get tutorials for how to use timelines in animation software.

[Monika Gause]

Will your timeline be equally complex?

In InDesign you might be able to use tables for this (if it's a simpler timeline)

in Illustrator brushes and arrowheads come to mind.

Do you expect a lot of changes in the review process?

[ARCrosskeee]

Thanks for the input.  I intend to keep the timeline fairly simple in layout.  There will be changes along the way so I would like it to be fairly customizable with regards to total length, adjusting lengths for individual periods of time, adding and removing lines below each section, etc.  Ive noticed that tables is very helpful for managing text.  At least the text remains centered in the cell of the table.  it seems that Illustrator does not have this same ability.

[Joely]

If you already have the Timeline inside InDesign – i would stay with ID. Much easier to emprove Layout/Design/Details from here.

[manal shanableh]

Defenitly InDesign is the right tool, it is easier to use tables.

[Sjaani]

I would think it will be easiest to continue in InDesign. You mention wanting to be able to adjust parts of it.

If a table is used this would make adjustment flow more easily.

Using Illustrator would likely mean making a lot of additional adjustments (moving extra lines around) in order to make one square bigger for example.