3 ms·

I'm not convinced it isn't still the best option. The naive viewer may not properly perceive the distortions, but I bet they'll get closer than with anything el

• jacobolus 8y ago
  For North America per se you could e.g. pick the conformal projection with roughly constant scale around the boundary of the continent (one world atlas does this), or you could pick a projection which minimized distance errors (there are several possible ways of quantifying those, which will yield different maps), or you could pick among several equal-area projections (especially useful if you want to make a choropleth map), or for something dynamic you could use an azimuthal equidistant projection or some conic projection (e.g. Lambert conformal conic, Albers equal-area conic), or .... https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1395 https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1395 There are many choices. An orthographic projection is generally one of the worst except insofar as it gives the impression of a physical sphere when you zoom all the way out.