Science

Map Projections

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Updated:3/6/2026
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Projection
Type
Year Created
Preserves
Known For
Mercator
Cylindrical (conformal)1569Angles and shapes (conformal)The map everyone grew up with, makes Greenland look the size of Africa (it's 14x smaller), perfect for navigation because straight lines = constant compass bearing, the most criticized map in history
Robinson
Pseudocylindrical (compromise)1963Nothing perfectly — compromises everythingNational Geographic's choice for 10 years, looks 'right' to most people even though nothing is accurate, the diplomat of projections — everyone's slightly unhappy but nobody's furious
Winkel Tripel
Azimuthal (modified, compromise)1921Balanced area, distance, and directionNational Geographic's current standard (since 1998), minimizes total distortion better than almost anything, name means 'triple' in German for its three-way compromise, the gold standard of wall maps
Peters (Gall-Peters)
Cylindrical (equal-area)1855 / 1967Area (equal-area)The political map — shows Africa and South America at their true massive size, West Wing episode made it famous, looks 'stretched' to Western eyes used to Mercator, sparked the biggest map controversy ever
Mollweide
Pseudocylindrical (equal-area)1805Area (equal-area)The elliptical world map, great for showing global distributions and climate data, edges get squished but areas are honest, the scientist's choice for thematic maps, elegantly curved
Goode Homolosine
Pseudocylindrical (interrupted, equal-area)1923Area (by interrupting oceans)The 'orange peel' map — slices the oceans to keep land accurate, looks like someone peeled the globe, brilliant for land-based data but sailors hate it, the most creative solution to an impossible problem
Azimuthal Equidistant
Azimuthal~1000 AD (al-Biruni)Distances from center pointThe UN flag uses it (centered on North Pole), flat Earth believers accidentally use a legitimate projection, shows true distances from one point to everywhere, used for radio and seismic analysis
Stereographic
Azimuthal (conformal)~150 AD (Ptolemy)Angles and shapes locally (conformal)The oldest projection still in regular use, maps circles on the globe to circles on the map, weather maps and polar regions love it, the astronomer's and navigator's projection
Lambert Conformal Conic
Conic (conformal)1772Angles and shapes (conformal)Aviation charts worldwide use it, US State Plane Coordinate System is built on it, great for mid-latitude countries that stretch east-west, the pilot's map projection, engineering standard
Albers Equal-Area Conic
Conic (equal-area)1805Area (equal-area)USGS standard for maps of the contiguous United States, preserves area perfectly for mid-latitude regions, the definitive way to map the USA, census and thematic mapping workhorse
Transverse Mercator
Cylindrical (conformal, transverse)1772 (Lambert) / 1822 (Gauss)Angles along central meridianUTM grid system that every GPS on Earth uses, Google Maps' base projection, rotated Mercator that's accurate in narrow north-south strips, the silent king of modern navigation
Dymaxion (Fuller)
Polyhedral (icosahedron)1943Relative area and shape (minimal distortion)Buckminster Fuller's genius unfolded icosahedron, no 'right way up' — challenges north-is-up bias, shows continents as nearly contiguous landmass, the most intellectually provocative map ever made
Equirectangular (Plate Carrée)
Cylindrical (equidistant)~100 AD (Marinus of Tyre)Latitude-longitude grid spacingThe simplest possible projection — just plot lat/lon as x/y, default texture map for 3D globes and satellite imagery, every space photo of Earth uses it, mathematically trivial but visually familiar
Sinusoidal
Pseudocylindrical (equal-area)1606 (Mercator's son?)Area and distances along central meridian and equatorEqual-area with pointed edges, great for single-continent maps, Africa and South America look correct, NASA uses it for planetary mapping, the mathematically elegant equal-area option
AuthaGraph
Polyhedral (tetrahedron-based)1999Area and shape (nearly uniform distortion)Won Japan's Good Design Grand Award, tessellates infinitely without edge distortion, arguably the most accurate flat world map ever created, quietly revolutionary, the future of cartography

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This dataset contains 15 entries, each with multiple sortable, filterable columns. The full table is visible on this page and can be downloaded as a CSV, JSON, or Excel file.

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Yes. The download buttons at the top of the page give you the full 15-row dataset as CSV, JSON, or Excel. Use of the data is permitted under a Creative Commons Attribution license — credit dtbse.com when you republish.

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