We develop a new approach for distributed distance computation in planar graphs that is based on a variant of the metric compression problem recently introduced by Abboud et al. [SODA'18]. In our variant of the Planar Graph Metric Compression Problem, one is given an n-vertex planar graph G = (V, E), a set of S ⊆ V source terminals lying on a single face, and a subset of target terminals T ⊆ V. The goal is to compactly encode the S × T distances.One of our key technical contributions is in providing a compression scheme that encodes all S × T distances using O(|S| · poly(D) + |T|) bits 1 , for unweighted graphs with diameter D. This significantly improves the state of the art of O(|S| · 2 D + |T| · D) bits. We also consider an approximate version of the problem for weighted graphs, where the goal is to encode (1 + ) approximation of the S × T distances, for a given input parameter ∈ (0, 1]. Here, our compression scheme uses O(poly(|S|/ ) + |T|) bits. In addition, we describe how these compression schemes can be computed in near-linear time. At the heart of this compact compression scheme lies a VC-dimension type argument on planar graphs, using the well-known Sauer's lemma.This efficient compression scheme leads to several improvements and simplifications in the setting of diameter computation, most notably in the distributed setting:• There is an O(D 5 )-round randomized distributed algorithm for computing the diameter in planar graphs, w.h.p.• There is an O(D 3 ) + poly(log n/ ) · D 2 -round randomized distributed algorithm for computing an (1 + ) approximation of the diameter in weighted graphs with polynomially bounded weights, w.h.p.No sublinear round algorithms were known for these problems before. These distributed constructions are based on a new recursive graph decomposition that preserves the (unweighted) diameter of each of the subgraphs up to a logarithmic term. Using this decomposition, we also get an exact SSSP tree computation within O(D 2 ) rounds. 1 As standard, O is used to hide poly log n factors. Peleg in their seminal work [GKP93, KP95], real world networks usually do have small diameter. In addition, global graph problems admit a trivial Ω(D) lower bound in the distributed setting. Thus, a separator with O(D) vertices is small w.r.t to the total round complexity. Distributed Planar Graphs via Low-Congestion Shortcuts. The area of distributed planar algorithm was initiated by Ghaffari and Haeupler [GH16a], who introduced the notion of lowcongestion shortcuts. Roughly speaking, low-congestion shortcuts augment vertex disjoint subgraphs of potentially large diameter, with edges from the original graph in order to considerably reduce their diameter. Using this machinery, [GH16a] has provided improved algorithms for MST and minimum-cut. Low-congestion shortcuts and their algorithmic applications have been studied extensively since then [HIZ16a, HIZ16b, HLZ18, Li18, HHW18]. Recently, Ghaffari and Parter [GP17]presented a distributed construction of shortest path separator in nearly optimal time. W...