This is a summary of map projections that have articles of their own on Wikipedia or that are otherwise notable. Because there is no limit to the number of possible map projections, there can be no comprehensive list. The types and properties are described in § Key.
Table of projections
Year ProjectionImage Type Properties CreatorNotes Equirectangular= equidistant cylindrical = rectangular = la carte parallélogrammatique Cylindrical Equidistant Marinus of Tyre Simplest geometry; distances along meridians are conserved. Plate carrée: special case having the equator as the standard parallel. 1745 Cassini = Cassini–Soldner Cylindrical Equidistant César-François Cassini de Thury Transverse of equirectangular projection; distances along central meridian are conserved.Distances perpendicular to central meridian are preserved. 1569 Mercator= Wright Cylindrical Conformal Gerardus Mercator Lines of constant bearing (rhumb lines) are straight, aiding navigation. Local shapes are conserved by north–south stretching to match the east–west stretching that happens because the meridians do not converge toward the poles as they do in reality. That causes areas to inflate with latitude, becoming so extreme that the map cannot show the poles. 2005 Web Mercator Cylindrical Compromise Google Variant of Mercator that ignores Earth's ellipticity for fast calculation, and clips latitudes to ~85.05° for square presentation. De facto standard for Web mapping applications. 1822 Gauss–Krüger= Gauss conformal= (ellipsoidal) transverse Mercator Cylindrical Conformal Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Heinrich Louis Krüger This transverse, ellipsoidal form of the Mercator is finite, unlike the equatorial Mercator. Forms the basis of the Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system. 1922 Roussilhe oblique stereographic Henri Roussilhe1903Hotine oblique MercatorCylindricalConformalM. Rosenmund, J. Laborde, Martin HotineDeveloped for mapping diagonally oriented land masses like Madagascar (Laborde) and Malaysia (Hotine) 1855 Gall stereographic Cylindrical Compromise James Gall Intended to resemble the Mercator while also displaying the poles. Standard parallels at 45°N/S. 1942 Miller= Miller cylindrical Cylindrical Compromise Osborn Maitland Miller Intended to resemble the Mercator while also displaying the poles. 1772 Lambert cylindrical equal-area Cylindrical Equal-area Johann Heinrich Lambert Cylindrical equal-area projection with standard parallel at the equator and an aspect ratio of π (3.14). 1910 Behrmann Cylindrical Equal-area Walter Behrmann Cylindrical equal-area projection with standard parallels at 30°N/S and an aspect ratio of (3/4)π ≈ 2.356. 2002 Hobo–Dyer Cylindrical Equal-area Mick Dyer Cylindrical equal-area projection with standard parallels at 37.5°N/S and an aspect ratio of 1.977. Similar are Trystan Edwards with standard parallels at 37.4° and Smyth equal surface (=Craster rectangular) with standard parallels around 37.07°. 1855 Gall–Peters= Gall orthographic= Peters Cylindrical Equal-area James Gall (Arno Peters) Cylindrical equal-area projection with standard parallels at 45°N/S and an aspect ratio of π/2 ≈ 1.571. Similar is Balthasart with standard parallels at 50°N/S and Tobler’s world in a square with standard parallels around 55.66°N/S. Central cylindrical Cylindrical Perspective (unknown) Practically unused in cartography because of severe polar distortion, but popular in panoramic photography, especially for architectural scenes. Sinusoidal= Sanson–Flamsteed= Mercator equal-area Pseudocylindrical Equal-area, equidistant (Several; first is unknown) Meridians are sinusoids; parallels are equally spaced. Aspect ratio of 2:1. Distances along parallels are conserved. 1805 Mollweide= elliptical= Babinet= homolographic Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Karl Brandan Mollweide Meridians are ellipses. 1953 Sinu-Mollweide Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Allen K. Philbrick An oblique combination of the sinusoidal and Mollweide projections. 1906 Eckert II Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Max Eckert-Greifendorff 1906 Eckert IV Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Max Eckert-Greifendorff Parallels are unequal in spacing and scale; outer meridians are semicircles; other meridians are semiellipses. 1906 Eckert VI Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Max Eckert-Greifendorff Parallels are unequal in spacing and scale; meridians are half-period sinusoids. 1540 Ortelius oval Pseudocylindrical Compromise Battista AgneseMeridians are circular. 1923 Goode homolosine Pseudocylindrical Equal-area John Paul Goode Hybrid of Sinusoidal and Mollweide projections.Usually used in interrupted form. 1939 Kavrayskiy VII Pseudocylindrical Compromise Vladimir Kavrayskiy Evenly spaced parallels. Equivalent to Wagner VI horizontally compressed by a factor of . 1963 Robinson Pseudocylindrical Compromise Arthur H. Robinson Computed by interpolation of tabulated values. Used by Rand McNally since inception and used by NGS in 1988–1998. 2018 Equal Earth Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, Bernhard Jenny Inspired by the Robinson projection, but retains the relative size of areas. Promoted by the United Nations since 2026. 2011 Natural Earth Pseudocylindrical Compromise Tom Patterson Originally by interpolation of tabulated values. Now has a polynomial. 1973 Tobler hyperelliptical Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Waldo R. Tobler A family of map projections that includes as special cases Mollweide projection, Collignon projection, and the various cylindrical equal-area projections. 1932 Wagner VI Pseudocylindrical Compromise K. H. Wagner Equivalent to Kavrayskiy VII vertically compressed by a factor of . Collignon Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Édouard Collignon Depending on configuration, the projection also may map the sphere to a single diamond or a pair of squares. 1997 HEALPix Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Krzysztof M. Górski Hybrid of Collignon + Lambert cylindrical equal-area. 1929 Boggs eumorphic Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Samuel Whittemore Boggs The equal-area projection that results from average of sinusoidal and Mollweide y-coordinates and thereby constraining the x coordinate. 1929 Craster parabolic =Putniņš P4 Pseudocylindrical Equal-area John Craster Meridians are parabolas. Standard parallels at 36°46′N/S; parallels are unequal in spacing and scale; 2:1 aspect. 1949 McBryde–Thomas flat-pole quartic= McBryde–Thomas #4 Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Felix W. McBryde, Paul Thomas Standard parallels at 33°45′N/S; parallels are unequal in spacing and scale; meridians are fourth-order curves. Distortion-free only where the standard parallels intersect the central meridian. 1937 1944 Quartic authalic Pseudocylindrical Equal-area Karl Siemon Oscar S. Adams Parallels are unequal in spacing and scale. No distortion along the equator. Meridians are fourth-order curves. 1965 The Times Pseudocylindrical Compromise John Moir Standard parallels 45°N/S. Parallels based on Gall stereographic, but with curved meridians. Developed for Bartholomew Ltd., The Times Atlas. 1935 1966 Loximuthal Pseudocylindrical Compromise Karl Siemon Waldo R. Tobler From the designated centre, lines of constant bearing (rhumb lines/loxodromes) are straight and have the correct length. Generally asymmetric about the equator. 1889 Aitoff Pseudoazimuthal Compromise David A. Aitoff Stretching of modified equatorial azimuthal equidistant map. Boundary is 2:1 ellipse. Largely superseded by Hammer. 1892 Hammer= Hammer–Aitoffvariations: Briesemeister; Nordic Pseudoazimuthal Equal-area Ernst HammerModified from azimuthal equal-area equatorial map. Boundary is 2:1 ellipse. Variants are oblique versions, centred on 45°N. 1994 Strebe 1995 Pseudoazimuthal Equal-area Daniel "daan" Strebe Formulated by using other equal-area map projections as transformations. 1921 Winkel tripel Pseudoazimuthal Compromise Oswald Winkel Arithmetic mean of the equirectangular projection and the Aitoff projection. Standard world projection for the NGS since 1998. 1904 Van der Grinten Pseudoconic Compromise Alphons J. van der Grinten Boundary is a circle. All parallels and meridians are circular arcs. Usually clipped near 80°N/S. Standard world projection of the NGS in 1922–1988. Equidistant conic= simple conic Conic Equidistant Based on Ptolemy's 1st Projection Distances along meridians are conserved, as is distance along one or two standard parallels. 1772 Lambert conformal conic Conic Conformal Johann Heinrich Lambert Used in aviation charts. 1805 Albers Conic Equal-area Heinrich C. Albers Two standard parallels with low distortion between them. Werner Pseudoconical Equal-area, equidistant Johannes Stabius Parallels are equally spaced concentric circular arcs. Distances from the North Pole are correct as are the curved distances along parallels and distances along central meridian. 1511 Bonne Pseudoconical Equal-area, equidistant Bernardus Sylvanus Parallels are equally spaced concentric circular arcs and standard lines. Appearance depends on reference parallel, but cordiform in all but the limiting case. General case of both Werner and sinusoidal. 2003 Bottomley Pseudoconical Equal-area Henry Bottomley Alternative to the Bonne projection with simpler overall shape Parallels are elliptical arcsAppearance depends on reference parallel. American polyconic Pseudoconical Compromise Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler Distances along the parallels are preserved as are distances along the central meridian. Rectangular polyconic Pseudoconical Compromise United States Coast Survey Latitude along which scale is correct can be chosen. Parallels meet meridians at right angles. 1963 Latitudinally equal-differential polyconic Pseudoconical Compromise China State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping Polyconic: parallels are non-concentric arcs of circles. Nicolosi globular PseudoconicalCompromise Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī; reinvented by Giovanni Battista Nicolosi, 1660. Azimuthal equidistant=Postel=zenithal equidistant Azimuthal Equidistant Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī Distances from center are conserved.