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

Announcing the Windows HD Imaging AQ

Last week Microsoft announced an Additional Qualification (AQ) for the Windows 7 Logo program called Windows® HD Imaging that requires adoption of the XPS for qualifying printers and applications, and promotes XPS as a key technology in the end-to-end high fidelity digital imaging experience. 

For those who are unfamiliar with the Windows® Logo program, its purpose is to allow partners to deliver, and consumers to identify, systems, applications, and devices that are known to be compatible and reliable with Windows® based on testing developed by Microsoft.  Logo’d products that offer specific enhanced user experiences can also earn Additional Qualifications (AQ) - in this case devices that use the latest printing and imaging developments in Windows® (XPS, WCS, WIC, Color Management) to offer the best end-to-end digital imaging experience.

There are a number of technologies that will be highlighted during the launch of Windows 7, and a specific subset of these will be eligible to earn AQs by passing tests in the Windows Logo Kit:

1.       Device Stage™

2.       Windows® Touch

3.       Windows® HD Imaging

4.       Windows® Media Center

The Windows® HD Imaging AQ will identify devices and software that capture high-fidelity color images and preserve that fidelity through image editing and printing with Windows® and will create a common language for customers looking to capture and print high fidelity images.

High-level requirements:

Cameras that make images available using RAW (+ WIC Codec) or HD Photo formats can qualify

Printers that support XPS, PrintSchema, and that pass the Windows Logo ColorFidelity tests can qualify for the AQ

Applications that support WIC to open RAW files, or that support HD Photo for editing, and that print using the XPS print path will be able to qualify for the AQ

The requirements can be accessed in Logopoint under https://winqual.microsoft.com.

Additional details are available in the Windows Logo Program newsletter for April 21, 2009: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/whql/resources/news/WHQLNews_042109.htm

Get started with XPS APIs for document workflows

If you’re thinking about building document workflows on XPS APIs, the first thing to consider is which framework to start with.

While the Windows 7 SDK supports new scenarios, it is still pre-release and won’t run on older Windows releases. We recommend starting with the .NET Framework today and moving over to the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 when it makes sense for you.

.NET Framework

Things you’ll need to get started…

1. .NET Framework 3.0 or greater
2. Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2008 Express

Starting points…

• A First Look at APIs For Creating XML Paper Specification Documents
• XPS Samples on MSDN

Windows 7

Things you’ll need to get started…

1. Microsoft Windows 7 beta (currently available only to Microsoft Windows 7 registered beta testers)
2. Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7
3. Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2008 Express

Starting points…

• XPS OM Code Samples
• Windows 7: Benefiting from Documents and Printing Convergence (PDC presentation)

As Windows 7 approaches release we will continue to provide more information on the new APIs and when/how to make the jump to Windows 7 APIs.

Jason

Thanks for joining us at AIIM!

The XPS team would like to extend our thanks to everyone who came by at AIIM to see what was happening in Windows 7.  We heard a lot of interest in building document workflow solutions on top of the Microsoft .NET and Win32 XPS APIs.  There are pointers coming soon on how to get started with those APIs, so keep watching this space.

For those who were unable to attend AIIM this year, you can grab our XPS handout…

…or get a look inside the Microsoft Product & Partner Pavilion:

Jason

XPS & Friends at AIIM

XPS at the AIIM International Exposition and Conference 2009

AIIM 2009 for the Enterprise Content & Information Management industry is being held in Philadelphia this week (March 30 to April 2) alongside On Demand. Windows 7 will be there, along with SharePoint, Office and other Microsoft products & solutions. You’ll find them in Booth 901 of the AIIM exhibition hall. If you’re in Philadelphia for either event you can stop by the booth to see XPS and business scanning features in action and also connect with the team - Jason, Sangeeta, Erhan and Adrian will be there.

Have fun!

Hello from WinHEC

Hello from WinHEC!  The XPS team is continuing the Windows 7 roll out of new XPS features at WinHEC 2008 this week.  Since our initial presentation of XPS printing (then called the “NextGen Print Path”) at WinHEC 2004, partner support of XPS in printing workflows has made incredible progress.  For a quick view of some of the XPS printing solutions available today, check out the XPS Technology Showcase.

At this year’s event, we are focusing on the new XPS Rasterization Service for XPSDrv print drivers and infrastructure enhancements to the XPS Print Path. Through both technical sessions and demonstrations at the Expo Hall, we are presenting the details of these new features to the hardware development community and showing the capabilities of these features in live code.  Check out the WinHEC site for more information on our XPS printing sessions: CON-T572 XPS Printer Driver Development in Windows 7 and CON-C650 XPS Rasterization and XPSDrv Performance in Windows 7!

Daniel. 

XPS & OPC Support in Windows 7

Last week at PDC and this week at WinHEC we’re talking for the first time about investments we’re making in Windows 7 to better support XPS and OPC.

• New Win32 APIs for XPS
• New Win32 APIs for OPC
• New Win32 API to provide access to the XPS Print Path
• New XPS Rasterization service for driver developers to use within the XPS Print Path filter pipeline
• Enhanced user experience with XPS Documents

We’ll be talking more about, and digging into the details of, these new features over the coming weeks and months as we head towards Windows 7 beta. To get a preview you can check out the details from PDC and WinHEC that Adrian posted.

Now fixed…

The problems posting the updated XPS Essentials Pack update are now fixed.

Thanks for your patience.

Problems downloading the updated XPS Essentials Pack

There’s an issue with the downloads for the updated XPS Essentials Pack. Not everyone is getting the update across all languages, we’re looking into it…

Thanks for your patience.

The XPS Essentials Pack has been updated to support Windows XP Service Pack 3

This update fixes a problem with the installer where it failed to recognize a newer version of Windows Imaging Component (WIC) that is included in Windows XP SP3. Also included is an update to the latest version of the XPS Print Path, as well as including a number of improvements to the print path, this update corrects an issue with the components previous included in the essentials pack that prevented component servicing.

To download the installer see http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/viewxps.mspx.

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.