The CRS of a Map Canvas
This tutorial demonstrates tools for accessing and changing projections and coordinate systems of the map canvas in a QGIS project.
Included in this tutorial:
Default CRS settings for a map canvas
Checking the current CRS of the map canvas
Changing the CRS of the map canvas
Software version in examples: QGIS-LTR 3.40.5-Bratislava
Tutorial Data: This tutorial uses the 1:10m Admin 0 - Countries shapefile downloaded from Natural Earth.
Natural Earth. “Admin 0 - Countries.” [shapefile]. 1:10m Cultural Vectors, version 5.1.1. 12 May 2022. Accessed 17 June 2025 from https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/
Credits: Sally Kaye and L. Meisterlin (2025)
Default Coordinate Reference System settings
There are two options for establishing the default coordinate reference system (CRS) of the map canvas in a new project.
The standard option: The first data layer’s CRS
The CRS of the map canvas is established by the first layer added to the project. This means that all subsequent layers will be reprojected on-the-fly to match the visualized map, unless the map canvas’s CRS is changed.
In this tutorial’s demonstration example, “Admin 0 - Countries” has been added to an empty project, using this standard default option. This data layer has an unprojected WGS84 CRS (i.e., ESPG: 4326).
An alternative option: A specific default CRS
The default CRS of the map canvas can be set to a specific CRS for all new QGIS projects within the application’s CRS Handling Options. To change this default setting for new QGIS projects, navigate through Settings > Options and click CRS Handling under the CRS and Transformations tab.
changing your CRS default settings
Checking the current Map Canvas CRS
To check and manage the project’s current CRS, click the Project tab in the main menu and click Properties to bring up the Project Properties dialogue box. You will find the relevant options under the CRS tab of the Project Properties.
navigating to the Project Properties window
quickly finding the CRS at the bottom of the map canvas
In the Project Properties dialogue, the CRS of the map canvas is highlighted under Recently Used Coordinate Reference Systems. In the bottom left corner of the Project Properties window, you can find more information about the CRS, including its accuracy, datum, method, units, extent, and origin. In the bottom right corner, you can find a small-scale image of the areas represented by the selected CRS.
viewing map canvas CRS information in the Project Properties window
The Countries dataset originally uses the WGS 84 CRS (unprojected), so this is also the original CRS of the map canvas. It is also indicated by the EPSG code 4326.
Setting or changing the current Map Canvas CRS
To set (i.e. change) the CRS of the current map canvas, access the Project Properties box by navigating through Project > Properties or clicking on the CRS code in the bottom right corner of the mapping window (shown above).
Find a specific built-in CRS by navigating through the folders or by using the Filter text box near the top of the dialogue box to search.
When you have found your desired CRS, click its name then click Apply to reproject the Map Canvas. Click OK to close out Project Properties and return to the map canvas.
This example demonstrates changing the map canvas CRS to the Robinson projection (applied to the WGS1984 datum) located under Predefined Coordinate Reference Systems > Projected > Robinson.
setting a new CRS for a map canvas
navigating to Zoom to Layer to recenter layers after reprojection
Occasionally, layers may “disappear” from the map canvas after reprojecting the map canvas. To recenter layers in the map canvas, right-click a layer’s name in the Layers Panel and click Zoom to Layer.
Layers within the map canvas are reprojected “on-the-fly” when the map’s CRS is changed; the underlying datasets are not reprojected.