XPS is the abbreviation of XML Paper Specification. It is a page description language which can describe a single page or a document containing multiple pages. The description includes all the text and graphics that appear on the page(s). Like other page description languages such as PDF, page elements are defined independently of a particular operating system, printer or viewing application. The page’s appearance is consistent regardless of the specific printer or viewer used.

XPS is closely linked to the Microsoft Vista operating system, being used as part of its underlying graphics architecture. It is probably no coincidence that Apple use its main competitor, PDF, as the graphics model within OS X. The goal of both technologies is offering WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) when viewing and printing documents.

Within Microsoft Vista, a language called XAML is used to describe how objects such as text need to appear on screen. XPS is a subset of this XAML language, specifically geared towards a fixed page format so that text cannot reflow when it is sent to different devices. In previous Microsoft operating systems, a technology called GDI was used. Compared to GDI, XPS is graphically more sophisticated and faster when printing complex objects such as transparencies or blends. There is less need for software vendors to implement their own printing technology to get around limitations (as was often the case with GDI).

What can you do with XPS

XPS can be used as a document sharing format, similar to PDF.

XPS can be used as a printer command language. Printer manufacturers can create XPS compatible printers. At the moment of writing, such printers were not yet available, most likely because XPS-support is only available for Vista and there are millions of XP, Linux or Max OS X users around. Vendors could write their own XPS driver for these systems or rely on third party tools but this takes time (and money). For a user, the disadvantage of using an XPS compatible printer is that it can only be used with XPS compatible systems. PostScript or PCL printers are easier to use in cross platform environments.

How do you create XPS files?

As with PDF, there are application such as Windows Office 2007 that can save files using the XPS file format.

In both Vista and Windows XP (with the XPS Essentials Pack installed), it is possible to print to an XPS file. I didn’t get this working on my XP system yet, so that software may still need a bit of fine-tuning.

How do you view XPS files?

Doubleclick a .xps file in Windows Vista and it will be shown using the XPS Viewer that is build into Internet Explorer.

This viewer plug-in can also be added to the same browser in Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server. For these two operating systems, you can also download a separate viewer application.

XPS compared to PDF

XPS and PDF are similar technologies: they can be used to display, share and print paged documents. There are however a number of differences between both systems.

PDF has the advantage of being an established standard, especially in the graphic arts market. Lots of people know PDF and own the tools to modify and process PDF files. Most workflows can either handle PDF files or use it as their internal file format.

• There are clear standards and procedures available to exchange print-ready PDF files. PDF/X and the GWG standards that built on this are perfectly geared towards the printing industry. There are no XPS equivalents.
• PDF is a true cross platform solution, with viewers available for a wide range of platforms, going from PDA’s to Macs and PCs and even a lot of Unix/Linux flavors.
• XPS on the other hand has the advantage of being ‘free’ since support for it is build into Vista and Office 2007. Even though there are a lot of free PDF viewers, PDF creation or editing tools such as Acrobat Professional cost a lot of money, especially for large organisations that need thousands of copies. Next to the licensing cost, deployment costs also add significantly to the price of implementing PDF. Since XPS support is included in the most popular operating system on the market, both the software and deployment costs can be a lot lower.
• It took years before decent PDF tools came to the market. Since XPS is XML-based, it is a lot easier to write software for it. Even though PDF currently has the advantage of having the biggest library of software tools, this might change rapidly and XPS tools may in the long run be cheaper and more abundantly available than their PDF equivalents.
• Even though Adobe is a large software company, Microsoft is even bigger and more influential.
• PDF has a soul mate called JDF, the Job Definition Format, which can be used to describe how a job and the accompanying PDF pages needs to be processed. Both JDF (job description) and PDF (job content) files can be bundled in a single mime file. XPS has Print Tickets, a technology that describes how an XPS file needs to be printed. Print Tickets are geared towards office printing whereas JDF is geared towards job handling in graphic arts. Technically it is probably feasible to refer to XPS files in a JDF job but it will probably take years before MIS and prepress vendors will even want to look into this, let alone get it working.

XPS and graphic arts

A lot of designers and agencies are still struggling to deliver proper PDF files to printers. Those printers won’t be in a hurry to promote yet another file format. What might happen however is that corporate customers who want to print office style documents demand that printers support XPS. This means that it is worthwhile to know a bit about the standard. Converting XPS files to PDF is probably the best way of dealing with the initial demand. If XPS really takes off, it is highly likely that the big workflow vendors add support for it to their systems.

The history of XPS

Microsoft developed XPS in close cooperation with a number of other companies, most notably Global Graphics. The original code name was ‘Metro’.

Users were first able to created XPS documents when Microsoft Vista was released for corporate use in November 2006. In January 2007 the consumer editions of Vista were made available, making the technology available for a much wider audience.

In June of 2007, Microsoft handed over the rights to the XPS specifications to Ecma International, an organisation that specialises in developing international information and communication standards. Within Ecma, a technical committee called TC46 continues work on XPS.

Links & stuff

A lot of background information on XPS can be found on the web site of Global Graphics.