Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Beyond Mercator


Mapzen has published links to a number of experimental interactive maps which use experimental map projections. While none of these experimental map projections are quite ready to threaten the dominant position of Web Mercator online, they do show that other map projections are available. They are also pretty awesome in that usual freaky Tangram way.

Among the more experimental map projections in Escape from Mercator is an Inception map projection (which Maps Mania looked at last week), a Katamari projection (pictured above), a psychedelic wavy map projection and a 2d to 3d transitional projection.


The example maps also include an Albers projection (pictured), which actually works very well as an interactive map projection.

Mapzen are right to point out that all these map projections are 'highly experimental'. However they are also really interesting. They also hint that Web Mercator's reign as the dominant web mapping projection may one day come to an end.

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