CWBP 2 Deciding the map

[Hai-Etlik]

Why the insistence on using the Mercator Projection? I've always considered it to be a butt ugly choice for world maps, however I quite like the Equirectangular Projection so maybe my opinion should be ignored.

Mercator allows you to chop out small sections and end up with something that has minimal distortion without reprojecting. All you need to do is apply a scale correction based on the latitude. That's why it's the projection used by zoomable web maps like Open Street Map and Google Maps. It does look horrible at the scale of continents though. Plate Carree/Equirectangular on the other hand looks ugly no matter what with the stretching it causes at the poles. About the only projection that's more ugly is Cylindrical Equal Area (Including Gall-Peters and Hobo-Dyers) which amplifies the stretching beyond that of Equidistant Cylindrical (Including Plate Carree/Equirectangular)

PS: Confused this with the other CWBP thread. In terms of prospective base maps, there's no particular reason to use Mercator. Plate Carree is probably the best choice as it's easy to reproject.