In the space A(C) of functions continuous on the closed unit disc and analytic in interior points normed in the minimax sense, it is proved that the projection T//n onto truncated Taylor series is a minimal projection onto polynomials. Moreover by computing a bound for the associated norm of T//n it is shown that T//nf is a practical near-minimax polynomial approximation to f in A(C). The projection F//n interpolating at the equally-spaced ″Fourier points″ on the unit circle, which is conjectured to be a minimal Lagrange interpolating projection, is shown to be a practical near-minimax polynomial approximation. Efficient algorithms for computing these two projections are based on the fast Fourier transform.