Open in playproj

playproj

PerspectiveCones and cylindersSpilhausGlobals and interruptedsTissots2 cellsL3 binsModel gridsIndex spaceMGRS and Sentinel-2Tiles and overviewsRasterizeRegular in what?CatastrophesFor exampleHomage

    About

    Map projections that have been argued about in public, as a small homage to the people who kept explaining them. Every map is drawn here with d3-geo from Natural Earth coastlines and checked against PROJ; the PROJ string is under each map. Nothing is copied: the UN emblem is redrawn from coastlines, the West Wing scene is described in our own words, and the comic is only linked. The true-size step is also drawn in R in this gist.

    Champions
    • James Gall (1855) and Arno Peters (1973), for the cylinder cut at 45 degrees and the argument that came with it.
    • Arthur H. Robinson, for his projection (1963) and for leading the 1989 resolution of North American geographic societies against rectangular world maps.
    • John P. Snyder, for Map Projections: A Working Manual (1987) and Flattening the Earth (1993).
    • Waldo Tobler, for decades of teaching what a projection does to the world.
    • Mark Monmonier, for How to Lie with Maps (1991) and Rhumb Lines and Map Wars (2004).
    • Bojan Savric, Bernhard Jenny and Tom Patterson, for Equal Earth (2018), and for Flex Projector and Projection Wizard.
    • Daniel Strebe, for Geocart and years of patient explanation of the trade-offs.
    • R. Buckminster Fuller, for the Dymaxion map, and Robert W. Gray, for working out its mathematics.
    • James Talmage and Damon Maneice, for The True Size Of; the Greenland slide here is a nod to it.
    • Randall Munroe, for xkcd 977, Map Projections (2011).
    • Aaron Sorkin and the writers of The West Wing, for the Cartographers for Social Equality (season 2, episode 16, 2001).
    • The Correct The Map campaign (Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa), backed by the African Union in 2025.
    • Gerald Evenden, Frank Warmerdam, Even Rouault, Kristian Evers and everyone who keeps PROJ going; Mike Bostock and Jason Davies for d3-geo.
    Source and contributing