CNET'S QUICK GUIDE: Microsoft XPS and Windows Presentation Foundation

Creating XPS documents

Using Windows Vista's XPS Document Writer, you can create XPS documents using any Win32 application. A built-in Windows Vista XPS printer driver gives the convenience of simply selecting XPS Documents as a printer choice within any application.

Combined with Microsoft Office 2007, which will someday include native support for XPS, Windows Vista provides digital rights management for XPS documents. This means administrators can set specific read, print, or view permissions that will be enforced by the Microsoft XPS Viewer whenever the DRM-enabled XPS document is shared with other users. If an organization is using Microsoft Windows Rights Management Server, users can be granted specific access rights, protecting the information after it is published. And you can also digitally sign XPS Documents so that the end user can trust the integrity of the document.

XPS includes its own page-description language, similar to PCL PostScript so that documents can be correctly rendered on printers that support XPS.

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