Help with map projections

[Hai-Etlik]

I'm not entirely clear on what you are after but I suspect you are getting into territory where you may need a GIS.

I want to be able to have a very fine graticule down to single degrees at the very last (preferably minutes).

G.Projector only has 2 degree graticules. In a GIS, you should be able to track down shapefiles of finer graticules; NaturalEarth has a free 1 degree graticule shapefile for instance.

I cannot seem to import a pre-existing shape/continent as a black and white image and then specify the latitude and longitude limits of the map, the projection I want to use

G.Projector can do this just fine.

it's a destructive way of editing

I'm not entirely sure what you mean here. If you want to be able to apply a bunch of graphical glitz, and then reproject it and have it come out looking OK, that's not going to happen. The best you'll get is working with vector data in a GIS where you can set up your symbology (which doesn't include all the filters and whatnot available in a graphics editor) and then you can reprojected the vector data, and the GIS will symbolize the projected data.

This is the result of noodling around with your map in QuantumGIS


I've attached the shapefiles I made. It's pretty rough but it works. Learning to use a GIS is quite an undertaking though.