What is XPS? Easily explained

Especially in everyday office life, you come across the XPS file format again and again. We explain what this is in this practical tip.

XPS - what is it?

XPS - short for XML Paper Specification - is a format-fixed file format from Microsoft.

• The strength of XPS, like the competing and more widespread PDF, is that a file is displayed and printed in format on all devices.
• This means that the document always looks the same - no matter which program you use to view it.
• With the XML markup language, XPS defines the layout of a document, all content and information is summarized as an archive. You can therefore open XPS files with archive programs.
• Since the file format was developed by Microsoft and published with Vista, all Windows computers have the option of opening XPS files.
• The similar format OXPS has been used since Windows 8. Windows 7 or older operating systems cannot open this without conversion.

XPS is a print format like PDF, but PDF is independent of Windows and more widespread. We'll explain how to convert XPS files to PDFs.