Fourier descriptors are classical global shape descriptors with high matching speed but low accuracy. To obtain higher accuracy, a novel framework for forming Fourier descriptors is proposed and named as MSFDGF (multiscale Fourier descriptor using group feature). MSFDGF achieves multiscale description by generating coarser contours. Then, a group of complementary features are extracted on the generated coarser contours. Finally, Fourier transform is performed on the features. MSFDGF-SH is a new global descriptor using the MSFDGF framework and shape histograms. Experiments are conducted on four databases, which are MPEG-7 CE-1 Part B, Swedish Plant Leaf, Kimia 99 and Expanded Articulated Database, to evaluate the performance of MSFDGF-SH. The experimental results show that MSFDGF-SH is an effective and efficient global shape descriptor. This new descriptor has a high accuracy of 87.76%, which exceeds the Shape Tree on the MPEG-7 CE-1 Part B dataset. This is the first Fourier descriptor that surpasses the Shape Tree method in terms of both accuracy and speed on this dataset.