Windows Vista will provide built-in creation and viewing capabilities for Microsoft's XML Paper Specification (XPS) document format. This new format will challenge the status of Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) as the de facto fixed document standard.
What Is XPS?
XPS, formerly known by the code name "Metro," is an XML-based specification for a fixed-layout document format similar to Adobe PDF. It allows users to view, print, and archive documents with no need of the authoring program. A single XPS file consists of XML code and a .ZIP format container that stores document components such as fonts and images.
