XPS & OXPS Format: Microsoft's Alternative to PDF (And Why It Failed)

What Is XPS and Where Did It Come From?

XPS (XML Paper Specification) is a document format developed by Microsoft and introduced in 2006 alongside the launch of Windows Vista. Its explicit goal was to challenge Adobe's dominance with PDF — particularly in the domain of print spooling and document distribution. Microsoft bundled XPS support directly into Windows: the XPS Viewer was a default application, and the Microsoft XPS Document Writer appeared as a virtual printer in every Windows Vista, 7, and 8 installation. Printing any document to "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" produced an XPS file, exactly as "Print to PDF" would later work.

OXPS (Open XPS) is the standardized successor: ECMA-388, published in 2009, formalized the format under an open standards body. OXPS introduced minor technical refinements but used the same fundamental architecture. In practice, OXPS is even rarer than XPS in the wild.

Technical Architecture: A ZIP Archive Full of XML

If you rename an XPS file to .zip and open it, you'll find a self-contained package:

• XML/XAML page descriptions — each page is an XML file describing content using a XAML-based coordinate system.
• Embedded fonts — OpenType fonts are embedded so the document renders identically on any Windows system.
• Images — embedded as JPEG or PNG files within the package structure.
• Digital signatures — XPS includes a signature layer for document integrity verification.
• Fixed page layout — unlike HTML/DOCX, XPS is a fixed-layout format. Every element has exact coordinates. What you see is what prints.

This architecture made XPS theoretically excellent for print-fidelity applications. A document rendered as XPS is byte-for-byte reproducible — fonts, layout, and color — on any system with an XPS renderer.

Why Microsoft Created XPS

The early-to-mid 2000s were the height of Microsoft's competitive battles with Adobe. PDF had become the de facto standard for document distribution, driven by the free Adobe Reader. Every enterprise used PDF for:

• Contracts and legal documents
• Financial reports
• Print-ready artwork and press files

Microsoft saw PDF's ubiquity as a risk: it put a competitor (Adobe) at the center of Windows document workflows. XPS was designed as a vertically integrated alternative — baked into the OS, no third-party download required, tightly integrated with the Windows print subsystem (GDI and later WPF).

The "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" virtual printer was particularly strategic: it made creating XPS files a zero-friction operation for any Windows user, just as natural as printing to paper.

Why XPS Failed

Despite the resources Microsoft brought to bear, XPS failed to displace PDF. The reasons are instructive:

PDF had already won:

• Adobe Reader was free, fast, and on virtually every PC by 2006.
• PDF was embedded in web browsers (Firefox had integrated PDF.js; Chrome bundled its own renderer).
• Entire industries — legal, financial, publishing — had PDF workflows deeply embedded.

No cross-platform support:

• macOS and Linux had no native XPS support. PDF was supported everywhere.
• Mobile devices (iPhone debuted in 2007, Android in 2008) supported PDF, not XPS.

Microsoft itself gave up:

• In 2017, Microsoft removed the XPS Viewer from Windows 10 as a default component. It became an optional feature you had to explicitly install.
• Microsoft Edge became the recommended way to view XPS files — using the browser as a document viewer, not a dedicated application.
• Microsoft pivoted to supporting PDF natively in Windows (Print to PDF became default in Windows 10), effectively admitting PDF's victory.

OXPS added confusion:

• Having both XPS and OXPS created an additional compatibility burden. Not all tools that handled XPS could handle OXPS and vice versa.

The Current State of XPS in 2025

XPS is a format in managed decline. Windows 10 and 11 still provide XPS support:

• Microsoft Edge can open XPS files natively (drag and drop an XPS file into Edge, it renders).
• XPS Viewer is available as an optional Windows feature (Settings → Apps → Optional features → XPS Viewer).
• Word 2013+ can save as XPS.

But practically speaking, almost no one creates new XPS files. The files encountered today are typically:

• Old enterprise print queue archives from the Vista/7 era.
• Windows Server fax system output (Windows Fax and Scan could save as XPS).
• Legacy government document archives, particularly in countries where public agencies briefly adopted XPS in the 2007–2012 timeframe.
• Court filing system exports from certain jurisdictions.

How to Open XPS Files

Windows 10/11:

• Microsoft Edge — drag the XPS file into an Edge window. This is the simplest approach and requires no additional installation.
• XPS Viewer — enable via Settings → Apps → Optional features → Add a feature → search for "XPS Viewer". Once installed, XPS files open by double-click.
• Word 2013 or later — can open XPS files directly, converting them to editable Word documents (with some formatting loss).

macOS:

• No native support. Convert to PDF first using an online converter or a Windows machine.

Linux:

• No widely-installed native support. LibreOffice can open some XPS files. Otherwise, convert using an online tool.

Universal approach:

• Convert to PDF, then open with any PDF viewer. This works on every platform.

Converting XPS to PDF

Windows — Print to PDF from Edge:

1. Drag the XPS file into Microsoft Edge.
2. Press Ctrl+P.
3. Select "Microsoft Print to PDF" as the printer.
4. Click Print. Choose a save location.

This produces a clean PDF from Edge's XPS renderer and requires no additional software.

LibreOffice (cross-platform):

soffice --headless --convert-to pdf input.xps

LibreOffice handles XPS import reasonably well for text-heavy documents. Complex layouts may shift slightly.

Ghostscript (with XPS plugin): If you have Ghostscript installed with XPS input support (not all builds include it):

gs -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.xps

Online converters: For one-off conversions without installing software, online XPS-to-PDF converters work adequately for documents you're comfortable uploading.

XPS vs PDF: A Realistic Comparison

Should You Convert Your XPS Archive to PDF?

If you work with XPS files regularly — maintaining a legacy archive, receiving XPS files from old systems, or managing government document archives — converting your collection to PDF is strongly recommended:

• PDF will remain supported indefinitely across all platforms and devices.
• PDF/A variants provide a formal archival standard with ISO backing.
• PDF tools (compression, merging, OCR, annotation) are mature and widely available.
• XPS tool development is effectively stalled.

The conversion is lossless in practice for the text and vector content typical in XPS files. Only highly complex transparency or color profiles might need verification after conversion.

Related conversions

Document conversions that follow this topic naturally:

• PDF to DOCX
• DOCX to PDF
• MD to PDF
• HTML to PDF
• ODT to PDF
• PDF to TXT