Gestalt Principles in Graph Drawing

Gestalt principles are rules for the organization of perceptual scenes. They were introduced in the context of philosophy and psychology in the 19th century and were used to define principles of human perception in the early 20th century. The Gestalt (form, in German) principles include, among others: proximity, the grouping of closely positioned objects; similarity, the grouping of objects of similar shape or color; continuation, the grouping of objects that form a continuous pattern; and symmetry, the grouping of objects that form symmetric patterns. Gestalt principles have been extensively applied in user interface design, graphic design, and information visualization.