Which projection maintains accurate shapes but distorts area?

Conformal projections are designed to maintain accurate shapes of features while distorting their area. This is particularly useful for navigation and other applications where preserving the local angle is important. As a result of this property, small areas on the map retain the shapes they have on the Earth. However, this methodology leads to areas being represented inaccurately; for instance, landmasses at higher latitudes may appear much smaller than they are in reality.

In contrast, equal-area projections prioritize preserving the size and relative area of geographic features, causing significant distortion of shape. Equidistant projections focus on maintaining accurate distances from one or more points, sacrificing both shape and area fidelity. Cylindrical projections can be conformal but do not exclusively maintain shape at all latitudes—such as the Mercator projection, which preserves shapes but distorts areas significantly, especially toward the poles, while conformal characteristics might not apply globally.

By understanding the specific purpose behind the conformal projection, it's clear why this answer is the correct choice in terms of accurately reflecting the nature of geographic information recognition.