Customer Reviews

Map Projections-A Working Manual

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
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(...) 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.

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)

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.

The font size in this book is only 1 millimeter. Seriously the letters are all 1mm tall, which makes the book generally unreadable. Its almost a waste of money.

The book "Map projections a working manual" is reprint of USGS publication under same name by MIT. The book and its contents are great and I am happy to have this book. The only thing that I am not happy with is the small fonts of the book contents. This small font size is the specific of MIT reprint and the original book printed by USGS is in normal and readable font size. I would be more satisfying if this problem was somehow mentioned in Amazon website so that I could decide knowingly if I want to pay for this product. Overall everything else about this product and its shipping/handling were perfect.

Quite useful for students who need to keep something before them for map drawings.... Excellent index Lacks in explaining certain small but imp. facts.