XPS Team Blog - XML Paper Specification and the Open Packaging Conventions

XPS Essentials Pack on Windows XP SP3

XPS Sample Documents Library 1.0

We've updated the library of sample documents to include a number of fixes and additional documents. You can find them here.

Enjoy!

Ecma forms technical committee for XPS

Ecma has announced the formation of a technical committee (TC46) to work towards the standardization of XPS – great news for everyone that's working on XPS implementations or building solutions based on XPS. More information on adrian’s blog.

XPS Essentials Pack for 23 additional languages

Microsoft is proud to announce the release of XPS Essentials Pack v 1.0 for 23 languages. You can download the XPS Essentials Pack from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B8DCFFDD-E3A5-44CC-8021-7649FD37FFEE&displaylang=en. Please select the appropriate language from the options.

 XPSEP is available in

1.     Arabic- Saudi Arabia

2.     Czech- Czekh Republic

3.     Danish- Denmark

4.     German- Germany

5.     Greek- Greece

6.     Spanish- Spain

7.     Finnish- Finland

8.     French- France

9.     Hebrew- Israel

10.  Hungarian- Hungary

11.  Italian- Italy

12.  Japanese- Japan

13.  Korean- Korea

14.  Norwegian Bokmål

15.  Dutch- Netherlands

16.  Polish- Poland

17.  Portuguese- Brazil

18.  Portuguese- Portugal

19.  Russian- Russia

20.  Swedish- Sweden

21.  Turkish- Turkey

22.  Chinese (Simplfied)

23.  Chinese (Traditional)

XPS Essentials Pack gives you the experience of generating and viewing XPS Documents without the need to install .NET Framework 3.0. XPS Essentials Pack requires MSXML 6.0 to generate XPS documents. For the language version of XPS EP you are planning to install, corresponding OS language pack should be already installed in your system. E.g for installing Spanish version of XPS EP, the Spanish language pack for the OS should be installed.

Your continued feedback has been very instrumental in the making of XPS Essentials Pack v 1.0. We thank you for this support and encouragement. Please continue to provide us with feedback to helps us make this product better. As before, you can continue providing your feedback to XPSinfo@microsoft.com

New XPS Whitepapers

The XPS team has prepared a couple new whitepapers which are now available:

• Maximum Performance from XPS Documents
• XPSDrv Filter Pipeline

Enjoy!

Print Schema Specification Version 1.0 Released

Microsoft has released Version 1.0 of the Print Schema Specification. The updated version is based on feedback from the community and our partners.

The Print Schema Specification Version 1.0 provides more specific guidance for use of some features. Included in the specification download is a readme file with information on changes made since the Print Schema Specification Version 0.95.

The Print Schema Specification Version 1.0 can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/printschema.mspx.

Microsoft XML Paper Specifications Essentials Pack v1.0 is released

Microsoft is proud to announce the release of XPS Essentials Pack v 1.0. You can download the XPS Essentials Pack from: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/viewxps.mspx . XPS Essentials Pack gives you the complete experience of generating and viewing XPS Documents without the need to install .NET Framework 3.0. XPS Essentials Pack requires MSXML 6.0 to generate XPS documents.

We are glad to announce that the release version of XPS EP is supported for Vista as well as Windows XP SP2,  Windows Server 2003 for both 32 bit and 64 bit machines. XPS EP has lots of cool components like the XPS Viewer, XPSDrv printer components, shell handlers, IPreview etc.   With IPreview on Vista you can preview the documents in Windows Explorer without opening the application.

Please note that when XPS Essentials Pack is installed on Windows Vista, XPS Viewer EP does not take over as the default application for XPS files. To set it as the default application to handle XPS files, you would need to right click on any XPS file, choose “Open With. In the options choose “XPS Viewer EP” as the application and ensure that “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” box is checked.

Your continued feedback has been very instrumental in the making of XPS Essentials Pack v 1.0. We thank you for this support and encouragement. Please continue to provide us with feedback to helps us make this product better. As before, you can continue providing your feedback to XPSinfo@microsoft.com

Microsoft Releases Print Schema Specification Version 0.95

Microsoft has updated the existing Print Schema Specification documentation that is currently available on MSDN. The updated documentation, Print Schema Specification Version 0.95, is based on feedback from the community and our partners.

What’s New:

The goal of the Print Schema Specification Version 0.95 is to provide more clarity for both explanatory text and requirements in the Print Schema documentation beyond what is currently available on MSDN. The Print Schema Specification Version 0.95 expresses requirements using MUST, SHOULD and MAY in accordance with their definitions in RFC 2119. Concepts are more clearly defined and provide Print Schema document producers and consumers with increased guidance on conformance requirements.

Please note that there is no intended change in functionality or requirements between the MSDN documentation and the Print Schema Specification Version 0.95.

Call To Action:

We invite Print Schema document producers and consumers to review the Print Schema Specification Version 0.95, available at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/printschema.mspx

We will be reviewing and responding to feedback aggressively in the next few weeks to drive the documentation to Version 1.0. Please provide your feedback to prninfo@microsoft.com.

Thanks!

Windows Experience Documents & Printing Team

RC1 of the Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essential Pack Released

The Release Candidate of Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack (XPS Essentials Pack) is now available for download to all our customers. XPS Essentials Pack RC1 is supported for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 for both 32 bit and 64 bit machines.

The XPS Essentials Pack contains:

1. XPS Viewer EP - A stand-alone viewer for XPS Documents.
2. Microsoft XPS Document Writer (MXDW) - Ability to generate XPS Documents by using the print command.
3. XPS Document metadata and thumbnail handlers - Extensions for inspecting and changing XPS Document properties in Windows Explorer.
4. XPS Document rich preview provider - Ability to preview XPS Documents in Outlook 2007.
5. XPS Document search and index filters - IFilter provider to enable indexing of XPS Documents for faster search.
6. XPSDrv print driver components – Components to enable printing to XPS devices like XPS printers.

XPS Essentials Pack does not require the installation of .NET Framework 3.0. To have a complete XPS experience, XPS Essentials Pack does require MSXML 6.0.

The XPS Viewer EP is a light-weight application that provides a rich viewing experience for XPS Documents. There are many exciting features built into the viewer, such as inherent support of HD Photo images and cool thumbnail views. The Microsoft XPS Document Writer (MXDW) complements the XPS experience by providing the means to generate XPS Documents, just by printing from any application to the MXDW print driver. The Essentials Pack search and index filters enable faster searching of XPS Documents using  applications like Windows Desktop Search. The IPreview implementation enables previewing XPS Documents in Office 2007 without actually launching the viewer. For example, you can preview an XPS Document attached to an email in the reading pane of Outlook 2007 with a single click on the attachment. And finally, the Essentials Pack also provides the XPSDrv printer components that enable printing to the new generation of XPS-based devices like the XPS printers.

Your continued feedback on the experience in using XPS Essentials Pack RC1 helps us make this product better. Please provide your feedback to XPSinfo@microsoft.com

You can download the XPS Essentials Pack from: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/viewxps.mspx

Updated Beta 2 for XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack

The Beta 2 version of the XPS EP Viewer was set to expire on 1/1/2007. An updated Beta 2 version that works after the 1/1/2007 expiration date can be found here.

XPS v1.0 released!

The XPS v1.0 specification has been released and can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/downloads.mspx.  The final release of Windows Vista is compatible with v1.0.  

After a quick toast of champagne and hand shaking, the final printed spec was signed by the team and sent to Microsoft Archives for safekeeping.  The XPS team would like to thank the industry for their ongoing feedback throughout the development of the specification.  We look forward to seeing the creative and compelling ways that you integrate XPS into your products. 

DigSig Whitepaper Available

OPC Conformance Numbers Mapping

XPS v0.95 Available

XPS 0.95 New Conformance Rule - Relationships Missing Target Parts

The following conformance rule was added to explicitly spell out the behavior when encountering a relationship in an XPS Document whose Target references a part that does not exist in the package.

Producers that generate a relationship MUST include the target part in the XPS Document for any of the following relationship types: DiscardControl, DocumentStructure, PrintTicket, Required Resource, Restricted Font, StartPart, StoryFragments, and Thumbnail. Consumers that access the target part of any relationship with one of these relationship types MUST generate an error if the part is not included in the XPS Document [M2.77].