“Gestalt” is a general term that describes a group of objects (physical, biological,
or even psychological phenomena) that have a definition as a group that is different
from their definitions when they are apart. This concept, borne of German psycholo‑
gists in the early 1900s, when applied to graphic design, encompasses many concepts
including image continuity, closure, similarity, and figure‑ground. For the purposes
of this discussion, we are interested primarily in the gestalt concept of figure‑ground
of course, which refers to the differentiation between an object and its background.
GIS maps usually include objects that need to be emphasized and separated from
the other objects on the map even though the other objects are also important for
geographic context. This applies to feature pairings such as land and water, city
points and land, or watersheds and forest stands.