2

I'm working on creating visually interesting maps for practice. I'm currently attempting to map a world map in a Cassini, Gauss-Kruger, or sinusoidal projection, but I'm having a hard time convincing QGIS to work with me. I started with Robinson, to experiment. I used a shapefile of world countries and reprojected by export -> save features as -> changing crs, then tried vector -> data management tools -> reproject layer. I'm using EPSG 54030, with the bounds: -17005833.33 -8625154.67 17005833.33 8625154.67

The bounds of the map, once loaded and setting project CRS from the layer are still in line with WSG84 and the countries are still appearing like a Mercator (using both methods). How do I convince QGIS to display and/or reproject correctly?

Improve this question
New contributor
Holly Bluer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering. Check out our Code of Conduct.
0

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

Short answer

Change project CRS (bottom right corner in QGIS main window).

Do not reproject the layer (and certainly even less: do not/never simply set/change layer's CRS).

  • Reprojecting layers is good for processing data.
  • Changing project CRS is good for cartography.

Detailed answer

Be aware not to confuse two things:

  1. CRS of your layer. When you reproject, you change the projection (coordinate values) of the data in your layer. Whenever you load the layer, QGIS will automatically reproject whatever data you have to fit your map canvas. So what you see is always the CRS/projection of the map canvas, NOT the CRS of the layer.

    Reprojecting the layer might be good for processing data, but it won't help with cartography (getting another projection for your map canvas).

  2. CRS of the project. This is the projection that is applied to the map canvas. So any kind of data, might it be in whatever projection/CRS, is adapted (repreojected) on the fly (without your intervention) to fit the map canvas.

    So if you record a GPS track in WGS 84 (EPSG:4326) and load it into a project with project CRS in Robinson, your GPS-data will automatically be shown in Robinson projection, but keep their GPS-coordinate values. You data isn't changed, it is only reprojected on the fly for visualization puropose.

That means: To get a map (visualization) in another projection, don't reproject the layer (what you did), but rather change the project CRS. To do so, go to the bottom right corner of the QGIS main window and change the CRS there.

enter image description here

Improve this answer
2

Running QGIS LTR 3.40.11 (OSGeo4W) on Windows 10 and using the "World Map" embedded layer with CRS EPSG:4326 WGS 84, there is no issue re-projecting on-the-fly e.g. to the ESRI:54030 World_Robinson CRS:

World_Robinson map

or to the ESRI:54008 World_Sinusoidal CRS:

World_Sinusoidal map

Improve this answer

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.