The objects in XFIG are divided into primitive objects and
compound object. The primitive objects are: ARC, CIRCLE,
CLOSED SPLINE, ELLIPSE, POLYLINE, POLYGON,
SPLINE, and TEXT. A primitive can be moved, rotated,
flipped, copied or erased.
A compound object is composed of primitive objects. The primitive objects
that constitute a compound can not be individually modified, but they can
be manipulated as an entity; a compound can be moved, rotated, flipped,
copied or erased. An extra function that can be applied to a compound
object is scaling, which is not available for primitive objects.