The visualization of temporal information should not be seen as a special case. A lot of applications take advantage of the time factor (e.g. capturing user events). In general recorded activities on a workstation can be seen as a temporal database and so can profit from a time-based visual output system too. We introduce a model which classifies the time as a ”first class citizen” in today’s operating systems. Such an invention would not only improve and standardize the capturing of temporal events but it would be of benefit for a temporal visualization system too. Within a 3D visualization space and a global time axis we introduce a printf4D() method. With this method it is possible to display images, videos, text strings or any other kinds of information in an automatically animated way. As a first proposal we demonstrate this function in a ”flow of information” metaphor where information-objects are not displayed all at once but in a flowing manner over a certain period of time. Additionally we will show that printf4D() is not limited to temporal data. It can be extended automatically to any kind of static information.