What is XPS?

A document in the XPS Document format is a paginated representation of electronic paper described in an XML-based format. The XPS Document format is an open, cross-platform document format that allows customers to effortlessly create, share, print and archive paginated documents.
XPS is the new document format that will also be the new print format for the enhanced Windows printing subsystem in the forthcoming Windows Vista.

Overview

The markup language for XPS is a subset of XAML for Windows Presentation Foundation, so that the methods used for rendering Windows applications can be used for documents.
XPS is viewed as a potential competitor to Adobe's portable document format (PDF). XPS, however, is a static document format that does not include dynamic capabilities similar to those of PDF.
XPS is shipped with Microsoft's Windows Vista and has the support of office printing system companies and software companies.

Technology

An XPS file is in fact a ZIP archive, which contains the files which make up the document. These include an XML markup file for each page, the embedded images and fonts, as well as the digital rights management information. The contents of the XPS file can be examined simply by opening the file as a ZIP file.