7 replies to this topic

[JerryYeh]

I need to print a map of the earth onto a sphere product, but I have no ideal how to solve the distortion problem, the image loses it's accuracy near the both poles, is there any software out there that can adjust the image before print? Thanks.

[Hans van der Maarel]

I need to print a map of the earth onto a sphere product, but I have no ideal how to solve the distortion problem, the image loses it's accuracy near the both poles, is there any software out there that can adjust the image before print?

Do you need to print the entire earth in one go?

[JerryYeh]

what we do now is to print the north and south pole separately.

[Hans van der Maarel]

what we do now is to print the north and south pole separately.

How exactly does the printing process work? Paper and then stick on to the globe? Direct screen printing on to the globe?

[JerryYeh]

we print the earth map out and then put it on the sphere

[Hans van der Maarel]

we print the earth map out and then put it on the sphere

Okay, so I'm going to assume it's on paper or similar material.

In that case, you'd have to cut up the map in a number of slices, called 'gores', and project them as a polyconic projection (central meridian being the center of each gore). The more gores you have, the easier it'll be to stick it on.

[JerryYeh]

Thank you for being so patience to help me, but when I said we use paper to print is because we don't know any other ways to do it, is there other ways to do it like the direct screen printing you mentioned before? Thanks.

[Unit Seven]

Your problem is paper is flat and doesn't want to curve to a sphere.

Have a close look at a globe and you'll see join lines of these 'gores' Hans is talking about. You can see some examples here: http://www.progonos....nt/projInt.html

The time I had to do this the client was using car wrap vinyl—the type you see on cars, buses etc when they have a full image printed on them. We still used gores but this then allowed the flat areas between the gores to stretch to the shape of the globe it was being stuck on.