About

About

The GeoCanvas App was created to visualise geographical features using different map projections. It should give you a critical view on how we represent our world on maps, as the most widely used, almost omnipresent Mercator projection has some flaws, which is being known and discussed for decades (use a search engine or AI Chat and ask the question “why is Greenland so big on maps” for an ELI5 introduction on that matter). This should not lead to a general criticism on the Mercator map projection but to a more open-minded reflection on how we use it. There is no single “best” map projection.

Some initiatives raise awareness of that by promoting other projections. There is for example the project #correctthemap which states “The Mercator map isn’t just about misrepresenting the size of the global South — it’s about power and perception.” (Correct the Map, 2025). The initiative is promoting the Equal Earth projection, which reveals the real size of the African continent and is strongly underrepresented in the Mercator projection.

Another more local decision was done by the government of Nebraska, which directly prohibits ("shall not allow" (Nebraska Legislature, 2024)) the use of the Mercator projection in public schools (Wendling, Nebraska Examiner, 2024) in favour of Gall-Peters projection or the AuthaGraph projection (available in GeoCanvas as Imago projection), if not used in combination with other projections (Nebraska Legislature, 2024). By not having local insights to that fact, it is unknown what happened in reality and what changed for the kids in school, as well as how this fact changed the teaching of geography.

Other perspectives are also discussed and covered in countless videos, articles and user comments if you ask questions like “Why is north up” or “Why is Europe the center of the map”. Why is Greenwich holding the middle of the map hostage by claiming the 0-Meridian (slight exaggeration in the wording here)? Why does “Down under” referring to Australia and New Zealand? Why do we use the term “Global south” to classify and draw an arbitrary line (“Brandt line”) on the map, which is not south at all, but still “largely intact” (Lees, 2021) but changing (Big Think, 2024)?

But wait, it might not even be a problem at all – all of that was eventually solved already! There are dozens of alternative map creations out there showing what ever you want, however you like it. There is the map “This Map Is Not Upside Down” (Simmon, maps.com, 2025) showing south up, there are projections where countries decide where the middle of the map should be like China (Cartonumerique, 2023) or the US (Geographia Map Company, 1942) and there are common projections used for specific thematic maps like showing Antarctica (Norwegian Polar Institute, 2021).

Other tools and inspiration

That is what the app was made for. Create your own map. Do it yourself, change the world as you like to view it. This is not a totally new idea, there are dozens of map creation tools in the web out there already, not even including all the great desktop tools which exist and inspired this project. Just some honourable mentions I know of:

• https://www.zeemaps.com/
• https://magrit.cnrs.fr/app/
• https://mapcreator.io/
• https://amcharts.com/editor/map/

The app is a small side project and will never be a feature complete GIS tool, but it is offered for free, no signup, no ads. It might get occasional updates for data or functionality to create some creative maps or support you on your next presentation where you need a quick export of an area or a world map. If you are already a cartographic expert, it also offers some more complex functionality you might be familiar with, like labelling, WMS support, styling and property handling without firing up QGIS or ArcGIS (or what ever other solution is available).

Data

The app hosts some publicly available data layers, which are free to use. This project aims to give an understanding and a visualization of world maps using different projections, some visual aids and critical views on how we represent our world. The datasets are annotated with their sources to show that there is no single way how we visualise the world and no single truth, but depending on who created the data, how the data was created, what perspective and purpose the creator had in mind, how they see the world (e.g. borders, countries, cities, etc.).

GeoCanvas.app is not a primary data provider. The curated data is thoughtfully selected by my own (biased) interests and perspective as well as needed to suite the technical ability of this web project. While the intention of the available data is a more global view, you can also add your own data using WMS/WMTS through the “Own Data” tab on the data page or by providing shapefiles or geojson through the canvas layer panel, though this is not OpenStreetMap or ArcGIS Online, you could experience some limitations.

Code, translation and infrastructure

The app was created and coded using AI assistants. While being able to understand and write code, it would not have been feasible to create this app without AI coding.

All translations were done using machine translation to make it accessible for a broad audience. The choice of languages was based on the number of native speakers.

The infrastructure behind this app is hosted in Germany under European privacy laws. It is privately funded and based on a custom geo-assets management tool and GeoServer.

In closing

I hope you enjoy the app.