Map Projections-A Working Manual [Paperback]

John Snyder (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: United States Government Printing (February 1983)
• ISBN-10: 9998605067
• ISBN-13: 978-9998605060
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,363,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still available from the USGS, March 30, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Map Projections-A Working Manual (Paperback)

(...) This is the standard publication on map projections. It is quoted, cited, and referenced more than any other book on this topic. It's mostly technical. The pages and pages of formulas can leave you bleary-eyed. But, the historical notes on people with famous names such as Lambert, Mercator, and Albers and the descriptions of projections and concepts are clearly written and should be interesting to casual users.

The formulas are complex, but with the help of the examples at the back of the book, I was able to write a function that converted points from geographic coordinates to UTM. There is a thorough description of the UTM system and several tables of useful information, such as the projection parameters of the various State Plane zones.

Using the formulas in this book, you should be able to convert a point from one projection to another (i.e. State Plane to Lat/Long, to UTM). There is not much written about datum conversions, however. That's a completely different topic. Search for the documentation on the NADCON if you need to convert between datums.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bible for Map projections -- but get as Free PDF from USGS, March 12, 2011

By 

J. Ogg "history buff" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Map Projections - A Working Manual (U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1395) (Paperback)

This fantastic book on theory of map projections (including histories) has a second part with worked examples on each type. Indeed, it is a working manual. Unfortunately, the printed versions are no longer in stock at US Geol. Survey; but they provide it as a free download -- [...] .
-- Jim Ogg (geoscientist; Purdue University)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Source On Map Projections, March 27, 2008

By 

G. Chastain "Engineer In Air and Missile Defense" (Huntsville, Al United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Map Projections - A Working Manual (U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1395) (Paperback)

Initially, I was surprised by the fact that this text had not been reviewed but then I realized that it probably isn't easy to find unless you know where to look.
"Map Projections - A Working Manual" is, in my humble opinion, THE definitive reference for map projections and the author, John P. Snyder is the expert.

This text blends fascinating historical tidbits on each type of projection along with full coverage of the mathematics necessary to perform the projections.
From the descriptions of the projections to the mathematics required to perform the projections, the material is presented in a clear and concise manner.

The text starts with the general concepts of projections before proceeding with the discussions of the various projections.
For each projection, the author provides a summary, history and features and usage of the projection. It then provides the formulas for the sphere and ellipsoid as applicable.
Plenty of illustrations and tables.

It also includes a great pull-out wall chart of map projections (illustrations) with a summary of usage of each.

The projections covered are provided below.

Cylindrical Projections:
Mercator
Transverse Mercator
Oblique Mercator
Cylindrical Equal-Area
Miller Cylindrical
Equidistant Cylindrical
Cassini

Conic Projections:
Albers Equal Area Conic
Lambert Conformal Conic
Equidistant Conic
Bipolar Oblique Conic Conformal
Polyconic
Bonne

Azimuthal Projections:
Orthographic
Stereographic
Gnomonic
General Perspective (vertical and tilted)
Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area
Azimuthal Equidistant
Modified-Stereographic Conformal

Space Map Projections:
Space Oblique Mercator
Satellite-Tracking

Pseudocylindrical and miscellaneous map projections:
Van der Grinten
Sinusoidal
Mollweide
Eckert IV and VI

As of March 2008, the text can still be purchased new through the USGS.gov online store for $37.00 US.