I can hardly wait to receive these...XPS format files

gumbylives · #1 (**permalink**) 01-11-2010, 01:29 PM

I found something interesting. Microsoft has created or is using the XPS format (similar to PDF).
see link

Open XML Paper Specification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Like Adobe Systems's PDF format, XPS is a fixed-layout document format designed to preserve document fidelity,[5] providing device-independent documents appearance. PDF is a database of objects, created from PostScript and also directly generated from many applications, whereas XPS is based on XML. The filter pipeline architecture of XPS is also similar to the one used in printers supporting the PostScript page description language. PDF includes dynamic capabilities not supported by the XPS format"

get ready for some fun out there...

cheers
Gumbylives

jotterpinky · #2 (**permalink**) 01-11-2010, 02:06 PM

XPS format has been out for several years. We've never had anyone bring in a file in this format. The type of people who will use it will be those who normally bring in artwork that needs separations and they bring in a MS Word file. I've found that most don't know their head from their a** anyway and the XPS format is still too much for them to swallow.

zoran · #3 (**permalink**) 01-11-2010, 02:27 PM

We've never had XPS supplied even though format has been out for a while.
If we did get it, Acrobat has conversion built in so you can convert XPS to PDF.
In my limited test, it worked really well so that angle is covered for now.

WiseGuy · #4 (**permalink**) 01-11-2010, 03:08 PM

I would check out gDoc from Global Graphics. It's an inexpensive application to process XPS and PDF into any format... including XPS into PDF and merging multiple files into one. Cheap too.

gDoc for PDF and XPS

Enjoy in case this helps!

Michael

james.bredenhof · #5 (**permalink**) 01-11-2010, 03:27 PM

If you get one of these files and you need to process it, if you have access to Acrobat 8 or up on PC, you can open the file and convert it to PDF.
Expect similar problems to MS Word (RGB, no spot support, etc.)

I'd be curious to hear if there are any people out there getting XPS files on any sort of regular basis.

Laurens · #6 (**permalink**) 01-12-2010, 05:47 PM

Coincidence or not? 'Have you ever created or received XPS files' is the January poll on my site. You can vote or look at the results in the right hand column of my page on XPS.

It isn't surprising that not a lot of people use XPS yet. The failure of Vista has been a setback for its market acceptance. The lack of a viewer and creation tools for Mac doesn't exactly help. The XPS feature set is inferior to that of PDF and it has yet to prove its reliability.

On the other hand Microsoft has proven to be both patient and able to consistently improve its products when it tries to establish a market standard. It will probably succeed in making XPS a popular solution to drive printers and share office type documents. I don't think they care about its use in the printing industry.

rich apollo · #7 (**permalink**) 01-13-2010, 09:09 AM

I wonder if PDF becoming an ISO standard has changed anything about the development of XPS.

gumbylives · #8 (**permalink**) 01-14-2010, 12:56 PM

There might inevitably be some files from novice desktop publishers, but considering the amount of quark files we receive (hardly any) in comparison to Indesign (a lot) I don't think there is too much to worry about.
cheers
Gumby

michaelejahn · #9 (**permalink**) 01-19-2010, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gumbylives

I found something interesting. Microsoft has created or is using the XPS format (similar to PDF). -- snip -- get ready for some fun out there...

@ Gumbylives

Wow, if you just now hear about XPS you need to get out more ! Me, I will wait for Adobes XML version of PDF - Adobe Mars...

Michael Jahn's blog

(wink)

I guess it is a tribute about how XPS has become a total failure as an exchange format - I sat on an XPS discussion panel in January of 2007 and many of us predicted it would not do much more than force rip manufacturers to build interpreters. It certainly has not shown itself much.

Michael Jahn's blog

Besides - if you have Adobe kit, you can simply open and convert it into something we all know and trust - PDF - and then actually lok at one on a macintosh...

Blocklayer · #10 (**permalink**) 02-11-2010, 03:43 AM

How common is xps in the printing industry generally?

I have a ticket printing application that produces xps print files. It's free to use on-line ( Print Your Own Raffle Tickets - Ticket Printing Free Online ) and most people print their own tickets from the print file, but a lot convert the xps to pdf (can be slow for a large file) and sent it to a printing shop. I've had printers say they don't (can't) print from xps files, but I think most of them don't even know what it is, or have bothered to try it.