Universal Transverse Mercator in the context of "Coordinate reference system"

A graticule or grid (from Latin crāticula 'grill/grating'), on a map, is a graphical depiction of a coordinate system as a grid of coordinate curves or "lines", each curve/line representing a constant coordinate value. It is thus a form of isoline, and is commonly found on maps of many kinds, at scales from local to global.

The term graticule is almost always used to specifically refer to the parallels and meridians of latitude and longitude, respectively. In modern usage, graticules are contrasted with grids, which display the eastings and northings of a projected coordinate reference system, such as Universal Transverse Mercator – usually the coordinate system in which the map is drawn.

A spatial reference system (SRS) or coordinate reference system (CRS) is a framework used to precisely measure locations on, or relative to, the surface of Earth as coordinates. It is thus the application of the abstract mathematics of coordinate systems and analytic geometry to geographic space. A particular SRS specification (for example, "Universal Transverse Mercator WGS 84 Zone 16N") comprises a choice of Earth ellipsoid, horizontal datum, map projection (except in the geographic coordinate system), origin point, and unit of measure. Thousands of coordinate systems have been specified for use around the world or in specific regions and for various purposes, necessitating transformations between different SRS.

Although they date to the Hellenistic period, spatial reference systems are now a crucial basis for the sciences and technologies of Geoinformatics, including cartography, geographic information systems, surveying, remote sensing, and civil engineering. This has led to their standardization in international specifications such as the EPSG codes and ISO 19111:2019 Geographic information—Spatial referencing by coordinates, prepared by ISO/TC 211, also published by the Open Geospatial Consortium as Abstract Specification, Topic 2: Spatial referencing by coordinate.

A projected coordinate system – also called a projected coordinate reference system, planar coordinate system, or grid reference system – is a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on Earth using Cartesian coordinates (x, y) on a planar surface created by a particular map projection. Each projected coordinate system, such as "Universal Transverse Mercator WGS 84 Zone 26N," is defined by a choice of map projection (with specific parameters), a choice of geodetic datum to bind the coordinate system to real locations on the earth, an origin point, and a choice of unit of measure. Hundreds of projected coordinate systems have been specified for various purposes in various regions.

When the first standardized coordinate systems were created during the 20th century, such as the Universal Transverse Mercator, State Plane Coordinate System, and British National Grid, they were commonly called grid systems; the term is still common in some domains such as the military that encode coordinates as alphanumeric grid references. However, the term projected coordinate system has recently become predominant to clearly differentiate it from other types of spatial reference system. The term is used in international standards such as the EPSG and ISO 19111 (also published by the Open Geospatial Consortium as Abstract Specification 2), and in most geographic information system software.