Summary and Guide to Projections :: Using Map Projections and Coordinate Systems (Mapping Toolbox™)

Summary and Guide to Projections

Cartographers often choose map projections by determining the types of distortion they want to minimize or eliminate. They can also determine which of the three projection types (cylindrical, conic, or azimuthal) best suits their purpose and region of interest. They can attach special importance to certain projection properties such as equal areas, straight rhumb lines or great circles, true direction, conformality, etc., further constricting the choice of a projection.

The toolbox has about 60 different built-in map projections. To list them all, type maps. The following table also summarizes them and identifies their properties. Notes for Special Features are located at the end of the table. Detailed information on all Mapping Toolbox map projections can be found in Map Projections Reference (available online and in the PDF version of this document).

Projection	Syntax	Type	Equal-Area	Conformal	Equidistant	Special Features
Balthasart	`balthsrt`	Cylindrical	•
Behrmann	`behrmann`	Cylindrical	•
Bolshoi Sovietskii Atlas Mira	`bsam`	Cylindrical
Braun Perspective	`braun`	Cylindrical
Cassini	`cassini`	Cylindrical			•
Central	`ccylin`	Cylindrical
Equal-Area Cylindrical	`eqacylin`	Cylindrical	•
Equidistant Cylindrical	`eqdcylin`	Cylindrical			•
Gall Isographic	`giso`	Cylindrical			•
Gall Orthographic	`gortho`	Cylindrical	•
Gall Stereographic	`gstereo`	Cylindrical
Lambert Equal-Area Cylindrical	`lambcyln`	Cylindrical	•
Mercator	`mercator`	Cylindrical		•		1
Miller	`miller`	Cylindrical
Plate Carrée	`pcarree`	Cylindrical			•
Trystan Edwards	`trystan`	Cylindrical	•
Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)	`utm`	Cylindrical		•
Wetch	`wetch`	Cylindrical
Apianus II	`apianus`	Pseudocylindrical
Collignon	`collig`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Craster Parabolic	`craster`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Eckert I	`eckert1`	Pseudocylindrical
Eckert II	`eckert2`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Eckert III	`eckert3`	Pseudocylindrical
Eckert IV	`eckert4`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Eckert V	`eckert5`	Pseudocylindrical
Eckert VI	`eckert6`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Fournier	`fournier`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Goode Homolosine	goode	Pseudocylindrical	•
Hatano Asymmetrical Equal-Area	`hatano`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Kavraisky V	`kavrsky5`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Kavraisky VI	`kavrsky6`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Loximuthal	`loximuth`	Pseudocylindrical
McBryde-Thomas Flat-Polar Parabolic	`flatplrp`	Pseudocylindrical	•
McBryde-Thomas Flat-Polar Quartic	`flatplrq`	Pseudocylindrical	•
McBryde-Thomas Flat-Polar Sinusoidal	`flatplrs`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Mollweide	`mollweid`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Putnins P5	`putnins5`	Pseudocylindrical
Quartic Authalic	`quartic`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Robinson	`robinson`	Pseudocylindrical
Sinusoidal	`sinusoid`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Tissot Modified Sinusoidal	`modsine`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Wagner IV	`wagner4`	Pseudocylindrical	•
Winkel I	`winkel`	Pseudocylindrical
Albers Equal-Area Conic	`eqaconic`	Conic	•
Equidistant Conic	`eqdconic`	Conic			•
Lambert Conformal Conic	`lambert`	Conic		•
Murdoch I Conic	`murdoch1`	Conic			•	3
Murdoch III Minimum Error Conic	`murdoch3`	Conic			•	3
Bonne	`bonne`	Pseudoconic	•
Werner	`werner`	Pseudoconic	•
Polyconic	`polycon`	Polyconic
Van Der Grinten I	`vgrint1`	Polyconic
Breusing Harmonic Mean	`breusing`	Azimuthal
Equidistant Azimuthal	`eqdazim`	Azimuthal			•
Gnomonic	`gnomonic`	Azimuthal				4
Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area	`eqaazim`	Azimuthal	•
Orthographic	`ortho`	Azimuthal
Stereographic	`stereo`	Azimuthal		•		5
Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS)	`ups`	Azimuthal		•		5
Vertical Perspective Azimuthal	`vperspec`	Azimuthal
Wiechel	`wiechel`	Pseudoazimuthal	•
Aitoff	`aitoff`	Modified Azimuthal
Briesemeister	`bries`	Modified Azimuthal	•
Hammer	`hammer`	Modified Azimuthal	•
Globe	`globe`	Spherical	•	•	•	6

Straight rhumb lines.
Rhumb lines from central point are straight, true to scale, and correct in azimuth.
Correct total area.
Straight line great circles.
Great and small circles appear as circles or lines.
Three-dimensional display (not a map projection).

Working with the UTM System

Creating Web Map Service Maps

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