XPS File : What is xps file format And How To Open It
.XPS File : What is xps file format And How To Open It
Do you want to know what is file extension XPS? In single sentence “XPS is a Microsoft file type similar to PDF format”. There are so many file formats or extensions that are really impossible to know all of them. The XPS file extension is one of them and many of us don’t know about it. So, in this article we will explain what file extension XPS is, how to open XPS files and what are the software that can convert XPS to other familiar formats like PDF or JPG etc?
What Is An XPS File Extension
XPS file or .xps file is document files that describe the structure and content of a document in the XPS page description language. Actually, it defines the structure, appearance, and printing information for a specific document. It’s also important to know that XPS files can be for one page or several pages.
In the starting, XPS files was introduced as a replacement for the Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format which is very similar with PDF files but saved in Microsoft’s proprietary XPS format. We can create XPS files in windows by selecting the “Microsoft XPS Document Writer” as the printer when printing a document.
After that this file can be used to view, save and protect the content of the document. The main quality of this format is that description of a document does not change for different OS or printers. It will always look exactly the same no matter who is looking in which OS or program. Because of this when we send or share XPS file documents to anyone, the other user can see the same file without any change through the XPS viewer program. Once you save any file in the .XPS format, you can no longer edit that file.
READ MORE : How To Open Microsoft .WPS File In Windows Pc
Programs To Open .XPS Files
Official Microsoft viewer program is the best option to open the XPS file document. All the windows OS and programs like Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Internet Explorer 6 or later included this program.
| Windows Programs
|
Microsoft XPS Viewer
Microsoft Reader Pagemark XpsConvert Mozilla Firefox with Pagemark XpsPlugin XPS Annotator NiXPS View NiXPS Edit |
| MAC | Apple Safari with Pagemark XpsPlugin
Included with OS Mozilla Firefox with Pagemark XpsPlugin Free NiXPS View Free Trial NiXPS Edit Free Trial |
| LINUX |
Mozilla Firefox with Pagemark XpsPlugin KDE Okular MuPDF
|
| Web | Google Drive
|
| Android | File Viewer for Android
Google Drive
|
How To Open An XPS File On Windows OS Machine
Most of all Microsoft Windows OS comes with a pre-installed XPS viewer program which is necessary to access XPS file format. If it’s not available on your pc, you have to download and install it separately.
Install XPS viewer program In Windows Pc
- Click on “Start” and search for the “Settings” section. Otherwise, press & hold the “windows logo key + I” to open the “Settings” section.
- Next, click the “Apps” option from the list.
- Now select the “Apps & features” option from the left side bar and then “Manage Optional Features or Optional feature” link.
- Click on “+” icon >>> type “XPS Viewer” under the “add an optional feature” section and it will display “XPS viewer” in front of you. Check mark the program and then click on the “install” button.
- After the installation, reboot your pc for once.
- Now locate the XPS extension based file and open it. This time it will automatically open in the XPS viewer tool.
XPS viewer is the quickest way to open an .XPS file in a Windows 10 PC which is also included in other Windows vista and newer versions. For those who are not able to locate the XPS viewer tool in their version, install the XPS Essentials Pack to open XPS files. Alternatively, Windows 10 and Windows 8 users can use the Microsoft’s Reader app to open XPS files.
Open an XPS File On a Mac Machine
For Mac users, opening a XPS file on a Mac is a little bit different from windows. Just because XPS Viewer is proprietary to Microsoft, so we can’t install it on a Mac machine. For this, we need to convert the XPS file into a PDF file online. After that it will easily open in your mac OS based pc.
- First of all, open a “XPS to PDF convertor website”.
- Click on the “upload” button and browse the XPS file from your system. Here you can upload more than 20 XPS files at the same time.
- Just after uploading your files; online tool will start conversion automatically.
- Tap on download to converted files on your local disk.
- Find the downloaded files and double click on it to open the new PDF files. As we already mentioned, the XPS file will store itself exactly the same (layout-wise) as a PDF, so you are not going to lose anything.
Please Note : Linux users can use Pagemark’s programs to open XPS files.
This is all about what a *.xps suffix is and how to open it on windows pc and mac OS? Just use the official XPS viewer tool for windows OS and open the file without any issue.
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