Is anyone using XPS? | The Coffeehouse

I was reading a post about documentation posted by microsoft on MSDN and realized that no one has been using or even talked about XPS in a while (I had almost forgotten XPS even existed).

I thought there should be advanteges with XPS because it is based on XML and it should be more flexible than PDF (though to be honest I never coded anything related to PDFs except to strip a few headers once). What happened to this format? Is it just because PDF is the de facto standard or there are other reasons why people are sticking with it? I just feel microsoft does not believe in it or stands behind it.

Bas

Actually, I often print to XPS if I need to print some sort of webpage (like a reservation or something) but I don't have access to a printer right then and there.

I also have to wonder if Microsoft still stands behind it, though. I think the only XPS document I ever got from Microsoft was the Vista product guide.

evildictaitor

"and it should be more flexible than PDF"

How so?

nick_journals

I thought that it would be good to use the new format in my product as it is by default in Vista and only needs a small download in XP, easy to use and it's free...

But I have learned my lesson, I get lots of people mailing (although I explained in the help):
- What is XPS?
- Why do I need .NET?
- Why not PDF?
- Then strange issues like the XPS file not opening or upon opening that the browser opens tons of tabs and IE needs to be killed.

So now I'm going to change it to PDF and will save myself a lot of support mails.
PS: Does anyone know of any free PDF generator?

I also wonder if Microsoft is still working on this, it seems like it is abandoned, just like the UI Automation classes that they were hyping but since its release, no word on it anymore on new features, bugs,... Sad

giovanni

In reply to evildictaitor

#Jul 1st @ 4:51 AM

Well, because an xps file is just a zip file with some folders and XML code inside, it should be easier to work with it than a PDF document, which has everything in one single file (binary images, PS code, etc.). Just my thought, thoug, as I sad, I never worked with PDF that much.

PaoloM

In reply to giovanni

#Jul 1st @ 5:30 AM

Among others, AutoCAD's new format is OPF with an embedded XPS preview. There are about a dozen file formats that use XPS as the preview technology (sorry, don't have the list at home now Smiley

)

giovanni

In reply to PaoloM

#Jul 1st @ 7:13 AM

Makes sense to me, it is just that I hesistate to use it as an archival format because pdf seems to be much more ubiquitous. I think that there is lots of potential for it, yet I haven't run into many xps documents over the internet.

WillemM

I'm using XPS as the format to display help information in a WPF client I created for a client. It's a pretty easy to use format in WPF and it can be transported easily between vista, windows xp and windows 2003 machines.

matthews

XPS is still pretty new; it's only been in use for a couple years, wheras PDF around for about 15 years. I'm using XPS for long term storage of my documents because an XML based paper system seems like it would easier for me to decipher 20 years from now than a binary system; that and Adobe has made a few too many changes to PDF for my liking.

mVPstar

In reply to matthews

#Jul 1st @ 10:55 AM

I use it, like Bas, to save a webpage.

RoyalSchrubber

In reply to mVPstar

#Jul 1st @ 5:02 PM

This friday I wanted to print bigger pdf documents and discovered my printer or its driver has a nasty bug where it sometimes puts big black box over whole page. The only way around was printing to XPS file and then printing that file with real printer. Hurray for the XPS. Smiley

michaelejahn

my take on your questions;

it should be more flexible than PDF
-- XPS is a snap shot of a page, but it also a printer driver and a spooler technology - nothing more or less ridgid in that you either follow the spec and it works, or it does not.

What happened to this format?
-- beside the fact that it does not solve a problem that was not already solved - there is no ecosystem - who cares about something that does the same thing as PDF, is no smaller, is not in any way faster, and not no one in the design community can place it, open it, view it as there is no MAC version, where many newspapaer and magazines live...

Is it just because PDF is the de facto standard or there are other reasons why people are sticking with it?
-- no, actually, it does nothing better or 'more' - so what would be the upside to switching ?

I just feel microsoft does not believe in it or stands behind it.
-- not that it would matter if they marketed the crap out of XPS - not sure this is 'no ecosystem' is something even Microsoft's could overcome - they tried to 'replace' PDF and they failed. Now Silverlight, will that be better than Flash ?

aiddy

"I also wonder if Microsoft is still working on this, it seems like it is abandoned"

Yup, Microsoft is still active & working on XPS and related goodies, although there is a difference between being 'active' and being 'vocal'. There's a healthy and growing ecosystem, including support on Mac OS X, Linux and other operating systems, which probably demonstrates better than anything I could say that XPS provides benefits and delivers value. It doesn't do everything, but then it was explicitly designed not to, and that's one of it's strengths.

More details at:
* http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/showcase.mspx
* http://blogs.msdn.com/adrianford/archive/tags/interop/default.aspx
* http://www.ecma-international.org/momento/tc46.htm

/aiddy