By default, new compositions have a white background, and are 640x480 pixels in size. If you want some other values for all your new compositions, you can change the defaults by clicking Options under Tools on the menu . The composition space can be thought of as the frame for your work. The area around this space can be thought of as your tabletop. You cannot draw directly on this composition space, however you can create shapes that can be placed there, and you can also paint these shapes if you wish.
Compositions are collections of image objects.
In Image Composer, image objects are called Sprites. A sprite has shape and transparency, as shown in the figure below. Because sprites are objects, you can use your mouse to move them in the workspace like you move icons on your Windows desktop. Each sprite is surrounded by a rectangular space called a bounding box. This box provides a frame of reference and the handles show what you can do with the sprite, such as resizing or rotating, as shown in the preceding figure.