What is an XPS file? The XPS format is Microsoft’s alternative to PDF. Microsoft developed it as the XML Paper Specification (XPS). It is also referred to as OpenXPS. It was introduced in Windows Vista, but never gained much traction. However, modern versions of Windows continue to include better support for XPS files than PDF files. Also if you’re using Windows 10, they have included a print to PDF feature natively into the operating system.

Regarding the format, Wikipedia says: “The XPS document format consists of structured XML markup that defines the layout of a document and the visual appearance of each page, along with rendering rules for distributing, archiving, rendering, processing and printing the documents. Notably, the markup language for XPS is a subset of XAML, allowing it to incorporate vector-graphic elements in documents, using XAML to mark up the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) primitives. The elements used are described in terms of paths and other geometrical primitives.”

PDF Printing

Some applications have added their own PDF-export support because Windows doesn’t have it natively. In many programs, you can print to PDF without installing a PDF printer at all. Google Chrome: Click the menu and click Print. Click the Change button under Destination and select Save as PDF. Microsoft Office: Open the menu, select Export, and select Create PDF/XPS Document. LibreOffice: Open the File menu and select Export as PDF.

Create PDFs from Websites

You can go to this How-To Geek website for more information.