  We present a new method to compare the shapes of genus-zero surfaces. We
introduce a measure of mutual stretching, the symmetric distortion energy, and
establish the existence of a conformal diffeomorphism between any two
genus-zero surfaces that minimizes this energy. We then prove that the energies
of the minimizing diffeomorphisms give a metric on the space of genus-zero
Riemannian surfaces. This metric and the corresponding optimal diffeomorphisms
are shown to have properties that are highly desirable for applications.
