I really like maps - digital or paper. Especially paper.
Maps are important. But there is no such thing as a perfect or correct map. All maps are a compromise in order to show a three-dimensional space in two dimensions.
Unless you are like Steven Wright... he has two accurate maps
his 1-1 scale map
& his existential map
Most of us grew up with the Mercator Projection. The Mercator projection is good for location directions, but the size of countries and continents is not proportional to reality. Africa in particular, looks much smaller than it is with Mercator. If you look at a Mercator Projection world map (ie Google), Africa doesn’t look that much bigger compared to China or the United States. In reality though, it’s a lot bigger.
Some of you will remember The West Wing episode that addressed the distortions caused by the Mercator Projection versus the Peters Projection.
The Equal Earth Projection or Equal Area Projection preserves the true size of continents and countries, making it ideal for comparing land areas. The map is in the public domain. A variety of versions are available at the link below, including these two: the first with north at the top and the second with south at the top. There is no reason not to have south at the top, except that's how we are used to it, and we don't like things that change our perspective.
some links:
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