about XPS

XPS, an acronym for XML Paper Specification, is a specification for a page description language and a fixed-document format developed by Microsoft. The XPS specification is the basis for OpenXPS, a new industry open standard approved by Ecma International on June 16, 2009.

The XPS document format (.xps) is composed of vector elements and supports device and resolution independence. The XML markup page description language, which describes the graphical content of pages within a document, together with all resources used to render the content are combined together in a single file package.

A New Approach

The explosive growth of communication has resulted in visual design becoming more important in all aspects of our lives. Documents are becoming more sophisticated and graphically richer, with more color content and more advanced graphical content. A format for displaying and printing, an "electronic paper", was needed that could facilitate manipulating the visual components programmatically within workflows so that documents could be assembled from a variety of sources.

The XPS format (.xps) meets and exceeds those needs. Microsoft provides an XPS Document Writer as a print-to-file driver within the Printers area of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.

Creating and Viewing

A new XPS document can easily be created by simply opening any document and printing with the XPS Document Writer. The XPS document can be viewed either in the Internet Explorer browser or in a dedicated desktop viewer provided natively in Windows 7 or available for download in Vista and XP operating systems.