XPS (XML Paper Specification) is Microsoft's fixed-layout document format — created as a direct alternative to PDF when Microsoft released Windows Vista in 2007. Both formats describe exactly how a document should look on any device. Despite technical similarities, they took very different paths in adoption, and today one is everywhere while the other is largely forgotten outside specific Windows contexts.
What XPS Is and Where It Came From
XPS was developed by Microsoft and introduced with Windows Vista. It was built into the Windows print system — every Windows Vista and later computer could create XPS files by printing to the Microsoft XPS Document Writer, just as you'd print to PDF. The format uses XML and ZIP (the .xps file is a ZIP archive containing XML files and resources), making it technically open and inspectable.
Microsoft positioned XPS as both a document exchange format and a spool file format for high-quality printing. The XPS viewer was built into Windows, and the format was submitted to ECMA International as an open standard (ECMA-388). On paper it had many of the same credentials as PDF Format.
Technical Differences
- Internal structure: PDF uses a binary format with its own object model. XPS uses XML and is packaged as a ZIP file — its internals are human-readable text, making it easier to inspect and generate programmatically.
- Font handling: both formats embed fonts. XPS uses OpenType fonts exclusively. PDF supports a wider range of font formats including older Type 1 fonts.
- Color: XPS has strong support for ICC color profiles and Windows Color System. PDF also handles color profiles well and has more mature support for CMYK and spot colors used in professional printing.
- Interactive features: PDF supports form fields, digital signatures, annotations, bookmarks, JavaScript, and multimedia embedding. XPS supports digital signatures and basic navigation but lacks PDF's rich interactive feature set.
- Security: both support encryption and digital signatures. PDF's security model is more mature with more granular permissions controls.
Why PDF Won and XPS Didn't
PDF had a fifteen-year head start. By 2007, when XPS launched, PDF was already the universal standard for document exchange — government agencies, courts, financial institutions, printers, and businesses worldwide had standardized on it. Adobe Reader was installed on virtually every computer. PDF had ISO standardization (ISO 32000). There was an ecosystem of tools, workflows, and expertise built around it.
XPS needed to displace all of this with a technically similar but not demonstrably superior format. Outside Windows it had essentially no support — Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and web browsers didn't prioritize XPS viewers. Sending an XPS file to someone outside a Windows environment meant they couldn't open it without a third-party tool. PDF worked everywhere.
Where XPS Still Exists Today
XPS survives in specific Windows contexts. The Windows print spooler uses XPS internally as its spool file format for high-quality print rendering. Windows still includes XPS Viewer for opening .xps files. Some Windows applications generate XPS as a print output option. And Microsoft replaced the older XPS format with OpenXPS (OXPS) — a variant with minor technical improvements — which ships with Windows 8 and later.
In everyday document exchange, XPS is rare. You're unlikely to encounter an .xps file unless working within a specific Windows enterprise environment that generates them, or receiving a file from someone who accidentally printed to the XPS writer rather than the PDF writer.
Converting Between XPS and PDF
If you receive an XPS file and need it as a PDF, Windows makes this straightforward: open the .xps file in XPS Viewer, print it using Microsoft Print to PDF, and save the output. The result is a standard PDF you can share with anyone.
Going the other direction — converting a PDF to XPS — is rarely necessary but possible through the same print-to-XPS approach in Windows. For any document exchange scenario, converting to PDF is the right choice: it's universally readable, has a mature ecosystem of tools including PDF Compression, editing, and signing capabilities, and is supported on every platform and device.