What is XPS? The New Electronic Paper Format.

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Open XML Paper Specification

The Open XML Paper Specification (also referred to as OpenXPS), is a specification for a page description language and a fixed-document format originally developed by Microsoft as XML Paper Specification (XPS) that was later standardized by Ecma International as international standard ECMA-388. It is an XML-based (more precisely XAML-based) specification, based on a new print path and a color-managed vector-based document format which supports device independence and resolution independence. OpenXPS was standardized as an open standard document format on June 16, 2009.

Technology

The XPS document format consists of structured XML markup that defines the layout of a document and the visual appearance of each page, along with rendering rules for distributing, archiving, rendering, processing and printing the documents. Notably, the markup language for XPS is a subset of XAML, allowing it to incorporate vector-graphic elements in documents, using XAML to mark up the WPF primitives. The elements used are described in terms of paths and other geometrical primitives.

An XPS file is in fact a ZIP archive using the Open Packaging Conventions, which contains the files which make up the document. These include an XML markup file for each page, text, embedded fonts, raster images, 2D vector graphics, as well as the digital rights management information. The contents of an XPS file can be examined simply by opening it in an application which supports ZIP files.

In 2003 Global Graphics was chosen by Microsoft to provide consultancy and proof of concept development services on XPS and worked with the Windows development teams on the specification and reference architecture for the new format.

Features

XPS specifies a set of document layout functionality for paged, printable documents. It also has support for features such as color gradients, transparencies, CMYK color spaces, printer calibration, multiple-ink systems and print schemas. XPS supports the Windows Color System color management technology for color conversion precision across devices and higher dynamic range. It also includes a software raster image processor (RIP) which is downloadable separately. The print subsystem also has support for named colors, simplifying color definition for images transmitted to printers supporting those colors.

XPS also supports HD Photo images natively for raster images. The XPS format used in the spool file represents advanced graphics effects such as 3D images, glow effects, and gradients as Windows Presentation Foundation primitives, which are processed by the printer drivers without rasterization, preventing rendering artifacts and reducing computational load.

Similarities with PDF and PostScript

Like Adobe Systems's PDF format, XPS is a fixed-layout document format designed to preserve document fidelity, providing device-independent documents appearance. PDF is a database of objects, created from PostScript and also directly generated from many applications, whereas XPS is based on XML. The filter pipeline architecture of XPS is also similar to the one used in printers supporting the PostScript page description language. PDF includes dynamic capabilities not supported by the XPS format.

Viewing and creating XPS documents

Because the printing architecture of Windows Vista uses XPS as the spooler format, it has native support for generating and reading XPS documents. XPS documents can be created by printing to the virtual XPS printer driver. The XPS Viewer is installed by default in Windows Vista. The viewer is hosted within Internet Explorer 8. This Internet Explorer-hosted viewer and the XPS Document Writer are also available to Windows XP users when they download the .NET Framework 3.0. The IE-hosted viewer supports digital rights management and digital signatures. Users who do not wish to view XPS documents in the browser can download the XPS Essentials Pack, which includes a standalone viewer and the XPS Document Writer. The XPS Essentials Pack also includes providers to enable the IPreview and IFilter capabilities used by Windows Desktop Search, as well as shell handlers to enable thumbnail views and file properties for XPS documents in Windows Explorer. The XPS Essentials Pack is available for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista. Installing this pack enables operating systems prior to Windows Vista to use the XPS print processor[clarification needed], instead of the GDI-based WinPrint, which can produce better quality[clarification needed] prints for printers that support XPS in hardware (directly consume the format). The print spooler format on these operating systems when printing to older, non-XPS-aware printers, however, remains unchanged. The beta version of Windows 7 contain a standalone version of the XPS viewer that supports digital signatures.

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