XPS
More info
- Creator
- Microsoft
- Released
- 2006
- Type
- Page description format
- Spec
- ECMA-388
Microsoft's XML-based document format from 2006, pitched as a PDF without Adobe — and Windows' new print format.
XPS (XML Paper Specification) was Microsoft's attempt to challenge PDF. It shipped with Windows Vista in 2006, described a finished page layout in XML packaged as a ZIP file (Open Packaging Conventions), and was built in at the same time as the spool format in the Windows print path, where it replaced the old EMF format.
Standardised as OpenXPS (ECMA-388), it never gained a foothold against PDF's enormous head start. Microsoft retired the XPS Viewer, and on Windows 10 and 11 support is an optional component you install yourself. A format that won the print queue but lost the document war.