# Fact Sheet — Mosaic-23 Xara

## What it is in one sentence

A world map made of 23 pieces, each projected from its own geographic centroid, showing the whole planet (including Antarctica) in rectangular format with continents at their real sizes.

## Reference data

| | |
|---|---|
| **Projection name** | Mosaic-23 Xara |
| **Author** | Xara (Real Earth) |
| **Publication date** | 24 May 2026 |
| **Licence** | CC BY-SA 4.0 (maps) · code on demand |
| **Web** | realearth.cat |
| **Output resolution** | 2880 × 1440 px (PNG + WebP) |
| **Base data source** | NASA Blue Marble (5400 × 2700 px) |

## Map structure

- **6 macro-regions**: NA (North America), SA (South America), AF (Africa), EU (Eurasia), AU (Australia), AN (Antarctica)
- **17 sub-regions**: IND (India), SEA (SE Asia), ARA (Arabia + Iran), TUR (Anatolia), RUS (Russia), EUR (Europe), CA (Central America), BAJ (Baja California), GRE (Greenland), ICE (Iceland), AFS (Southern Africa), MAG (Maghreb), MAD (Madagascar), NZ (New Zealand), PAT (Patagonia), PAC (Central Pacific), HAW (Hawaii)
- **Per-piece technique**: azimuthal-equidistant projection centred on the regional centroid
- **Composition**: chained anchoring — Arabia rotates around Sinai (12°), Eurasia + India rotate around the Strait of Hormuz (30°), SE Asia + AU + NZ block rotates 50°

## Visual variants available

| Variant | Description | Suggested use |
|---|---|---|
| **Classic** | Atlas style with flat-coloured continents over blue sea | Textbooks, atlases, press |
| **Terra** | Continents in satellite view on white | Educational materials, infographics |
| **Relief** | Topographic relief map | Geographic visualisations, science |
| **Negative** | Black silhouettes on white | Overlays, typographic editions |

## Differentiation from precedents

| Compared to... | Advantage of Mosaic-23 |
|---|---|
| **Mercator** (1569) | Antarctica visible. Africa at its real size (not shrunk by 14×). |
| **Gall-Peters** (1973) | Continents with real shape, not stretched. Antarctica in plan view, not as a strip. |
| **Robinson** (1963) / **Winkel Tripel** | Truly rectangular format, not pseudo-oval. |
| **AuthaGraph** (1999) | Division by real geographic regions, not arbitrary triangles. Closer to end users (not a complex proprietary system). |
| **Dymaxion** (1943) | Conventional rectangular format. America–Asia axis preserved. Readable as a normal map. |

## Project origin

The author approached the challenge without taking previous cartographic work as a direct reference, deliberately seeking new solutions from a humanistic and pragmatic standpoint instead of a mathematical one.

> "I saw that school maps were biased. I wanted to square the circle: the planet printed on a sheet of paper at real sizes. The work has been manual and laborious; surely someone will be able to refine it computationally, but the approach is what mattered to me."

The proposal is published as a **personal contribution to cartography**, not as a technical project open to continuous external iteration.

## Acknowledged limitations

- **Not strictly equal-area** at the global level (it is within each piece).
- **Visible seams** between pieces in certain regions (Arabia-Iran, Sinai-Egypt), mitigated manually.
- **Small Pacific islands** are not visible — a limitation of the base texture's resolution.
- **Aesthetic rotations** of Antarctica and Arabia: composition decisions, not mathematical properties.

## Intended applications

- **Primary and secondary education**: alternative to Mercator in classrooms.
- **Editorial**: textbooks, children's atlases, press infographics.
- **Cultural**: posters, exhibitions, artistic installations.
- **Climate/oceanographic**: visualisation of phenomena where Antarctica matters.

## Material available for press

In the `images/` folder of this press kit:
- `mosaic23_classic.png` — Classic variant (atlas style)
- `mosaic23_terra.png` — Terra variant (continents on white)
- `mosaic23_relleu.png` — Relief variant (topographic)
- `mosaic23_negatiu.png` — Negative variant (silhouettes)

All free for editorial use with credit: **"Real Earth · Mosaic-23 Xara"**.
