Evaluating Map Projections for Globe Making

Cartographic globes are known to have been in production for over two centuries. Though no longer used as a navigational aid, globes remain in high demand as scientific and artistic artefacts, both in physical and virtual form. However, the cartographic quality of many modern manuscript globes (i.e., those in which paper maps are attached to a sphere, usually in the form of ‘gores’) is poor, in part due to a lack of detailed evaluation of the mathematical approach to their creation. This work provides a robust quantitative methodology for the evaluation of map projections for globe production, as well as the first such evaluation of a range of map projections to see which perform the best. The Cassini projection (for gores) and the Azimuthal Equidistant projection (for the accompanying polar caps) are the best performing projections for a general-purpose globe in most circumstances.