PDF and XPS are both fixed-layout document formats designed to preserve the appearance of a document regardless of which software or device opens it. Despite that shared purpose, they come from different ecosystems and aren't interchangeable in most real-world workflows.
What Is XPS?
XPS (XML Paper Specification) is Microsoft's document format, introduced with Windows Vista as an alternative to PDF. It uses XML to describe page layout and content, and is built on the Open Packaging Convention โ the same foundation used by .docx and .xlsx files. Windows includes an XPS viewer built into the operating system, and the Microsoft Print to XPS driver lets any application save documents as XPS files.
Key Differences Between PDF and XPS
Ecosystem support is the biggest difference. PDF is supported on every major platform โ Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android โ and virtually every browser, email client, and productivity app can open it. XPS is primarily a Windows format; there's no native XPS viewer on Mac or iOS, and most non-Windows applications don't support it. If you need to share a document with anyone outside a Windows environment, PDF is the only practical choice.
Features also differ. PDF supports interactive elements โ fillable forms, embedded multimedia, JavaScript, digital signatures with certificate-based verification, and sophisticated security options. XPS supports digital signatures but lacks most of PDF's interactive capabilities. PDF has a richer tooling ecosystem: thousands of tools exist for editing, converting, compressing, and manipulating PDFs, while XPS tooling is sparse.
When XPS Might Be Used
XPS sees most of its use in Windows printing pipelines and document archiving workflows within organizations that run entirely on Windows infrastructure. The Windows print spooler uses XPS internally. Some enterprise document management systems that were built around Windows technology accept XPS as an archival format.
Outside those specific contexts, XPS adoption has been limited. Microsoft itself shifted focus away from XPS with Windows 10, and the format sees little development today.
Converting XPS to PDF
If you have an XPS file that needs to be shared or processed, converting it to PDF is usually the right move. On Windows, open the XPS file in the built-in XPS Viewer, then use File > Print and select Microsoft Print to PDF as the destination. This converts it to a standard PDF that any tool can open.
Once the file is in PDF format, you have access to the full range of PDF tools โ you can compress it with a PDF Compression tool to reduce file size, edit it with a PDF Editor, merge it with other documents, or add security. XPS offers none of those downstream options.
Which Should You Use?
For any document intended to be shared, distributed, or archived for long-term access: PDF. It has broader support, richer features, and a vastly larger ecosystem of compatible tools. XPS is only worth considering if you're working within a specific Windows-only enterprise system that explicitly requires it โ and even then, converting to PDF for distribution outside that system is the practical approach.