this gestalt idea of pragnaz sounds intriguing, so much so that i've been doing a bit of hyperlinking so as to educate myself somewhat concerning it. isn't it nice how crawling around on a web seems to encourage nonlinear processing so that it's easy to get lost and find something new every once in a while? it can be a paralyzing experience to discover having been wrapped up in it for hours and days however!  one such link defines the law of pragnaz thus: 'the visual organization of perceptual objects will always be as "good" as prevailing conditions allow. Regularity, simplicity, symmetry (translation - convey the essence of something)' The author defines other "laws of perceptual organization that govern the emergence of a visual figure" with somewhat greater clarity (with accompanying figures for each law), including the law of proximity, the law of similarity, the law of closure and the law of good continuation.  It is unclear to me whether or not all of these come from the gestalt school of psychology; I would like to explore these laws in much greater depth... willing to recommend any links or books (electronic or otherwise) which might be useful to me and/or to even offer an extended description as time allows?  i appreciate the sound advice that you offered in the form of the quote from the website that mark provided a link for.  anyway, time to extricate myself from the web...if indeed there's STILL TIME! e_lie