3

I want to display something on a world map. I have these shapefiles http://thematicmapping.org/downloads/world_borders.php I want my map to look something like this:

enter image description here

or

enter image description here

I am using QGis. Is that difficult to archive or do I 'simply' have to change the projection of the shapefile? I am lacking some theoretical knowledge and I do not know where to start searching...

nmtoken
  • 13,355
  • 5
  • 38
  • 87
four-eyes
  • 3,378
  • 5
  • 33
  • 58
  • 1
    Keep an eye on http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/24725/is-the-mercator-projection-or-the-gall-peters-projection-of-the-world-more-accur/24738?s=1|0.6175#24738 ;-) – AndreJ Mar 19 '15 at 08:59

1 Answers1

3

Since some of your desried projections may have problems with on-the-fly-reprojection, I suggest to create custom CRS for each projection, and save the shapefiles to that under a different name. Then create a new QGIS project, select the custom CRS as project CRS, and add the new shapefile layer.

Some CRS might fail if the north or south pole is included.

AndreJ
  • 76,698
  • 5
  • 86
  • 162
  • I wont be working on the projections. I just need them to create a map which I then want to print. No fancy operations needed... Creating a custom CSR makes me a little bit nervous. How would I do that? – four-eyes Mar 19 '15 at 08:38
  • 3
    Eckert IV, Gall and Polyconic are already in QGIS. The first nameless example is World Mercator, and for Plate Caree you can take EPSG:4326. The second nameless, Goode Homolosine Interrupted, needs a custom CRS, see http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/17263/is-it-possible-to-use-the-goode-homolosine-projection-in-qgis – AndreJ Mar 19 '15 at 08:42
  • The last missing could be Gall-Peters, or Equal Area Conical, with lat_ts at 45°. This needs a custom CRS, QGIS has only lat_ts at 30°. – AndreJ Mar 19 '15 at 08:51
  • Ah, thanks. So reprojection would change the display of the map. Its that simple? :) – four-eyes Mar 19 '15 at 09:11
  • 1
    Yes. Just try out the worldwide projections available in QGIS. – AndreJ Mar 19 '15 at 10:20
  • Bummer, the azimuth north equal areas raises an error... But the equal distance works. Weird – four-eyes Mar 19 '15 at 10:47
  • 1
    The North pole projections don't like Antarctica. You have to delete it before reprojecting. – AndreJ Mar 19 '15 at 11:04