Another great feature in Vista is the XPS file format which is the default format for printing documents in Vista. XPS stands for XML Paper Specification. Let’s look into some of the featuresof this format.
When we print a document there are many differences between the original document and the printed one. XPS is the file format that helps to print documents as seen on the computer screen. This is because an XPS document is an identical copy of the original document and the printed document is an exact copy of the document displayed on the screen. All the properties of the documents like the resolution,fonts, images, page layout are all retained. What makes this possible is that XPS is a vector-based graphics format. It is a resolution independent format. So you can zoom in or zoom out your images the way you like and the quality of the picture or document is not affected. The advantage is high quality prints, fast printing time; more over the document is an exact copy of the original document or image. Whenever you click on the print command in Microsoft Word or Excel 2007, the document is converted automatically by Vista to XPS format and then only the document is printed. But you need a printer that supports XPS format. So make sure that your printer supports XPSformat if you are planning to buy one.
