XPS vs. PDF
Behaving more like a ZIP archive file, XPS documents contain all the files necessary to re-create a document on any system. By changing the XPS extension to ZIP, you can view the files related to any XPS document. Specific files include embedded images and fonts so that, if someone doesn't have the same fonts installed on their machine, the XPS Viewer will still render those original fonts, if only for the document. There's also an XML file for each page and information on any digital rights management permissions.
Portable Document Format (PDF), from Adobe, represents two-dimensional documents in a fixed-layout document that is both device- and resolution-independent. This includes text, forms, images, and 2D vector graphics. Because PDF files do not include information specific to the application or the operating system that created it, PDF files will render the same on any machine. Like XPS, Adobe allows that anyone may create and view PDF files without paying royalties.
Although it shares many similarities with the much more popular Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), XPS is not a dynamic document format and is designed primarily to transform onscreen content, such as Web sites, into static, printable documents. This allows the XPS document to be viewed, printed, searched, and protected with the latest digital rights management systems within Windows Vista. But the real difference lies in XPS's printer dependences. Before, within Windows, documents often did not print correctly, largely because of the spooling practices within Windows. By using the .Net Framework 3.0 and WPF, XPS can more accurately reproduce a document on the printer within Windows Vista than PDF can.
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