Hello, I've been wandering around this site for a while and making a few rough maps in GIMP for fun, but now I want to start working on a world map. I've read some good information like A Magical Society: Guide to Mapping and some other helpful stuff, but my issue is dealing with map projections. If I just go and make a rectangular map the way I want the world to look, that doesn't mean it would realistically translate into a spherical planet, due to how the image skews and has to be torn apart to become a sphere.

Is there any method or program which I can use to see how various maps would look when translated on to a sphere?

Thanks, Arachanox.