What is the Platform Update for Windows Vista?

The Platform Update for Windows Vista is a set of runtime libraries that makes it easy for developers to target both Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Among the technologies included in the Platform Update for Windows Vista are the XPS Print API for XPS Printing, the XPS Rasterization Service for XPSDrv-based driver development, and the XPS Document API + Packaging API for the creation, manipulation and access of XPS content.  This enables developers to take advantage of new Windows 7 APIs to access existing features while ensuring their applications will work on Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2, and underscores our commitment to ISVs and IHVs that are developing solutions to take advantage of the XPS format.

For more information on Windows 7 Graphics Update for Windows Vista see http://blogs.msdn.com/directx/.

Document and Printing Features

XPS Print API

The XPS Print API is included in the Platform Update for Windows Vista.  This allows Win32 developers to send XPS content directly to the XPS Print Path. It also supports automatic conversion to support non XPS printing devices.  .  The XPS Print API is detailed on MSDN at this link:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd374565(VS.85).aspx . 

XPS Rasterization Service

The XPS Rasterization Service provides an inbox solution to XPSDrv driver developers who require rasterized content.  The driver developer can write a print filter pipeline filter that calls the service, which will return rasterized content.  This service is introduced in Windows 7 and is now available through the Platform Update for Windows Vista to Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2.  Information on the XPS Rasterization Service can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd445665.aspx.

XPS Document API + Packaging API

The XPS Document API and Packaging API support the functionality required to work with the XPS Print API and XPS Rasterization Service, these components may be used to work directly with XPS content, although some API features available in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 are not available in the Platform Update for Windows Vista. These differences are detailed below.

XPS Document API provides interfaces to work directly with XPS Documents.  In the Platform Update for Windows Vista, XPS Document API implements all the Windows 7 interfaces except for digital signature functionality (see XPS Document API link in the MSDN link:    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd316975(VS.85).aspx.

The Packaging API in the Transition Pack will only expose the following interfaces needed by the XPS Document API. 

·         IOpcUri

o   All Win7 interface methods are supported

§  CombinePartUri

§  GetRelativeUri

§  GetRelationshipPartUri

·         IOpcPartUri

o   All Win7 interface methods are supported

§  ComparePartUri

§  GetSourceUri

§  IsRelationshipsPartUri

·         IOpcFactory

o   Supported interface methods

§  CreatePackageRootUri

§  CreatePartUri

§  CreateStreamOnFile

The Windows 7 documentation for Packaging API can be found here:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd742822(VS.85).aspx.  Note that this link discusses all of the Packaging API functionality, not just the interfaces included in the Transition Pack listed above.

How to Download

Now that the Office 2010 Technical Preview is out, we’re happy to announce some great new printing experiences.

Print Place

The most obvious printing feature is a dramatically redesigned print dialog known as the “Print Place” that is available in Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, and Publisher. This dialog is optimized to present the most commonly used print job settings at the top level UI and reduce the need to use the Page Setup dialog or a custom print properties page.

Two features that were formerly not available in the top level print dialog for most Office applications are stapling and automatic duplexing. Office is able to show these features when connecting to printers that support these capabilities and expose them using the Print Schema Specification. All other printer settings are gathered using the DEVMODE struct or the document. In order to support stapling and duplexing, the print driver must have implemented PrintTicket support and these features must be exposed in the public PrintSchemaKeywords namespace.

Here are the links to the relevant keywords, defined by http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2003/08/printing/printschemakeywords.

XPS Print Path Support

Publisher 2010 will support printing to the XPS print path in order to provide users with the highest quality print experience available. This feature is enabled in the Technical Preview release, and will be used automatically when the target printer is installed with an XPS driver. When an XPS driver is not available, Publisher falls back to legacy GDI printing. Users may opt out of the XPS print path using the Publisher Options > Advanced > Use XPS-enhanced print path when available checkbox. Publisher does not indicate to end-users which path is being used at print time.

This implementation of XPS printing is based on the Office 2010 Save as XPS feature. Issues encountered in the Technical Preview when printing from Publisher 2010 should be checked against Publisher 2010’s Save as XPS output.

This feature does not use the XPS Print APIs introduced for Windows 7.

Justin

The 97^th General Assembly of Ecma International, held in Budapest in June, approved the Open XML Paper Specification, OpenXPS, as an Ecma Standard: Ecma-388 1st Edition.

This marks a major milestone in the evolution of the XPS format and, like all standards activities, is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication from expert representatives from a range of organizations.

In the case of OpenXPS, representatives from 21 organizations met around the world, and virtually on numerous conference calls, over the course of two years to standardize the format. I thought it would be interesting for readers of this blog to share some of background on the process that used in TC46, as well as provide an overview of key changes to the specification made as a result of the committee’s work.

 TC46 Represented Organizations

Lots of people, from many different organizations, have been involved in the process to standardize the format. Much of the work was done virtually – on conference calls and using email – with detailed issues worked through in face-to-face meetings. To provide an indication I took the following list of organizations represented in face-to-face meetings from the meeting minutes.

 

Organizations represented in TC46 face-to-face meetings

Autodesk

Brother Industries

Canon

Ecma International

Fujitsu

Fuji Xerox

Global Graphics

Hewlett Packard

Konica Minolta

Lexmark International

Microsoft

Monotype Imaging

Océ

Pagemark

Panasonic

Quality Logic

Ricoh

Software Imaging

Toshiba

Xerox

Zoran

TC46 Issue Tracking

The committee addressed a total of 231 raised issues. Of these, 180 were technical with the remainder editorial. Technical issues were defined as issues that required consideration of how any proposed solution would impact interpretation of the specification by someone implementing the format. Many of the issues were closed as addressed – i.e. we changed the specification in some way – some were resolved either because no action was required, or because addressing the issue was beyond the scope of the first edition of the standard. This chart provides a running track of issues across the main part of the project.

Liaisons & Feedback Channel

TC46 provided a feedback channel throughout the process for organizations and individuals not associated directly with the TC to provide feedback. TC46 also formed liaisons with other standardization groups.

Substantive Changes

There have been many changes to the specification between the submitted base documentation and the final standard. TC46 published copies of the draft specification throughout the project; however, with the caveat that the final text of the standard is the reference, I thought I’d highlight some of the key changes for the Microsoft ecosystem:

·         Support for X3D: OpenXPS provides optional support for the X3D Standard to represent 3D content within the document. X3D support is implemented using the Markup Compatibility and Extensibility Specification standardized as Part 5 of Ecma-376 to ensure that there is no additional implementation requirements on consumers that have already implemented support for XPS.

·         Removal of proprietary references: OpenXPS is designed for implementation independently of platform – the number of independent implementations of XPS on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows and various embedded systems demonstrates this. However, for OpenXPS Windows-specific references to .Net, the Print Schema Specification, and the Windows Color System were removed and relevant areas of the specification restructured to eliminate the requirement for those references.

·         Improved color profile interoperability: parts of the specification dealing with color profiles have been improved to remove ambiguities in the specification and improve interoperability.

·         Namespace URI changes: the namespaces URIs for the FixedPage markup and other parts of the specification have changed, for example: http://schemas.openxps.org/oxps/v1.0  

·         Recommendations for identifying OpenXPS: OpenXPS makes specific recommendations for how to identify OpenXPS documents. To avoid confusion with the conventions used with XPS, OpenXPS recommends the use of *.oxps as a filename extension and  application/oxps as the content type.

Compatibility with Microsoft Products

OpenXPS is not compatible with existing Microsoft implementations of XPS. The two main reasons for this are:

1.      Namespace URI change: Microsoft implementations validate against the XPS schema and therefore use the namespace URI to identify content when processing XPS documents.

2.      XPS documents are identified differently: Microsoft implementations use *.xps and application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument to identify XPS documents. OpenXPS documents are identified by *.oxps and application/oxps.

We don’t have any plans to announce at this time regarding support for OpenXPS (unfortunately, with the public Release Candidate already available, OpenXPS was too late for Windows 7) but Microsoft does see OpenXPS as a key foundation for the printing and document ecosystem and is very pleased to see the format emerge as a formal standard. We’re looking forward to working across industry to see how best to update the ecosystem to OpenXPS.

[update: fixed table formatting]

Last week Microsoft announced an Additional Qualification (AQ) for the Windows 7 Logo program called Windows® HD Imaging that requires adoption of the XPS for qualifying printers and applications, and promotes XPS as a key technology in the end-to-end high fidelity digital imaging experience. 

For those who are unfamiliar with the Windows® Logo program, its purpose is to allow partners to deliver, and consumers to identify, systems, applications, and devices that are known to be compatible and reliable with Windows® based on testing developed by Microsoft.  Logo’d products that offer specific enhanced user experiences can also earn Additional Qualifications (AQ) - in this case devices that use the latest printing and imaging developments in Windows® (XPS, WCS, WIC, Color Management) to offer the best end-to-end digital imaging experience.

There are a number of technologies that will be highlighted during the launch of Windows 7, and a specific subset of these will be eligible to earn AQs by passing tests in the Windows Logo Kit:

1.       Device Stage™

2.       Windows® Touch

3.       Windows® HD Imaging

4.       Windows® Media Center

The Windows® HD Imaging AQ will identify devices and software that capture high-fidelity color images and preserve that fidelity through image editing and printing with Windows® and will create a common language for customers looking to capture and print high fidelity images.

High-level requirements:

Cameras that make images available using RAW (+ WIC Codec) or HD Photo formats can qualify

Printers that support XPS, PrintSchema, and that pass the Windows Logo ColorFidelity tests can qualify for the AQ

Applications that support WIC to open RAW files, or that support HD Photo for editing, and that print using the XPS print path will be able to qualify for the AQ

The requirements can be accessed in Logopoint under https://winqual.microsoft.com.

Additional details are available in the Windows Logo Program newsletter for April 21, 2009: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/whql/resources/news/WHQLNews_042109.htm

If you’re thinking about building document workflows on XPS APIs, the first thing to consider is which framework to start with.

While the Windows 7 SDK supports new scenarios, it is still pre-release and won’t run on older Windows releases. We recommend starting with the .NET Framework today and moving over to the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 when it makes sense for you.

.NET Framework

Things you’ll need to get started…

1. .NET Framework 3.0 or greater
2. Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2008 Express

Starting points…

• A First Look at APIs For Creating XML Paper Specification Documents
• XPS Samples on MSDN

Windows 7

Things you’ll need to get started…

1. Microsoft Windows 7 beta (currently available only to Microsoft Windows 7 registered beta testers)
2. Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7
3. Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2008 Express

Starting points…

• XPS OM Code Samples
• Windows 7: Benefiting from Documents and Printing Convergence (PDC presentation)

As Windows 7 approaches release we will continue to provide more information on the new APIs and when/how to make the jump to Windows 7 APIs.

Jason

The XPS team would like to extend our thanks to everyone who came by at AIIM to see what was happening in Windows 7.  We heard a lot of interest in building document workflow solutions on top of the Microsoft .NET and Win32 XPS APIs.  There are pointers coming soon on how to get started with those APIs, so keep watching this space.

For those who were unable to attend AIIM this year, you can grab our XPS handout…

…or get a look inside the Microsoft Product & Partner Pavilion:

Jason

XPS at the AIIM International Exposition and Conference 2009

AIIM 2009 for the Enterprise Content & Information Management industry is being held in Philadelphia this week (March 30 to April 2) alongside On Demand. Windows 7 will be there, along with SharePoint, Office and other Microsoft products & solutions. You’ll find them in Booth 901 of the AIIM exhibition hall. If you’re in Philadelphia for either event you can stop by the booth to see XPS and business scanning features in action and also connect with the team - Jason, Sangeeta, Erhan and Adrian will be there.

Have fun!

Hello from WinHEC!  The XPS team is continuing the Windows 7 roll out of new XPS features at WinHEC 2008 this week.  Since our initial presentation of XPS printing (then called the “NextGen Print Path”) at WinHEC 2004, partner support of XPS in printing workflows has made incredible progress.  For a quick view of some of the XPS printing solutions available today, check out the XPS Technology Showcase.

At this year’s event, we are focusing on the new XPS Rasterization Service for XPSDrv print drivers and infrastructure enhancements to the XPS Print Path. Through both technical sessions and demonstrations at the Expo Hall, we are presenting the details of these new features to the hardware development community and showing the capabilities of these features in live code.  Check out the WinHEC site for more information on our XPS printing sessions: CON-T572 XPS Printer Driver Development in Windows 7 and CON-C650 XPS Rasterization and XPSDrv Performance in Windows 7!

Daniel. 

Last week at PDC and this week at WinHEC we’re talking for the first time about investments we’re making in Windows 7 to better support XPS and OPC.

• New Win32 APIs for XPS
• New Win32 APIs for OPC
• New Win32 API to provide access to the XPS Print Path
• New XPS Rasterization service for driver developers to use within the XPS Print Path filter pipeline
• Enhanced user experience with XPS Documents

We’ll be talking more about, and digging into the details of, these new features over the coming weeks and months as we head towards Windows 7 beta. To get a preview you can check out the details from PDC and WinHEC that Adrian posted.

The problems posting the updated XPS Essentials Pack update are now fixed.

Thanks for your patience.

There’s an issue with the downloads for the updated XPS Essentials Pack. Not everyone is getting the update across all languages, we’re looking into it…

Thanks for your patience.

This update fixes a problem with the installer where it failed to recognize a newer version of Windows Imaging Component (WIC) that is included in Windows XP SP3. Also included is an update to the latest version of the XPS Print Path, as well as including a number of improvements to the print path, this update corrects an issue with the components previous included in the essentials pack that prevented component servicing.

To download the installer see http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/viewxps.mspx.

We've updated the library of sample documents to include a number of fixes and additional documents. You can find them here.

Enjoy!

Ecma has announced the formation of a technical committee (TC46) to work towards the standardization of XPS – great news for everyone that's working on XPS implementations or building solutions based on XPS. More information on adrian’s blog.

Microsoft is proud to announce the release of XPS Essentials Pack v 1.0 for 23 languages. You can download the XPS Essentials Pack from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B8DCFFDD-E3A5-44CC-8021-7649FD37FFEE&displaylang=en. Please select the appropriate language from the options.

 XPSEP is available in

1.     Arabic- Saudi Arabia

2.     Czech- Czekh Republic

3.     Danish- Denmark

4.     German- Germany

5.     Greek- Greece

6.     Spanish- Spain

7.     Finnish- Finland

8.     French- France

9.     Hebrew- Israel

10.  Hungarian- Hungary

11.  Italian- Italy

12.  Japanese- Japan

13.  Korean- Korea

14.  Norwegian Bokmål

15.  Dutch- Netherlands

16.  Polish- Poland

17.  Portuguese- Brazil

18.  Portuguese- Portugal

19.  Russian- Russia

20.  Swedish- Sweden

21.  Turkish- Turkey

22.  Chinese (Simplfied)

23.  Chinese (Traditional)

XPS Essentials Pack gives you the experience of generating and viewing XPS Documents without the need to install .NET Framework 3.0. XPS Essentials Pack requires MSXML 6.0 to generate XPS documents. For the language version of XPS EP you are planning to install, corresponding OS language pack should be already installed in your system. E.g for installing Spanish version of XPS EP, the Spanish language pack for the OS should be installed.

Your continued feedback has been very instrumental in the making of XPS Essentials Pack v 1.0. We thank you for this support and encouragement. Please continue to provide us with feedback to helps us make this product better. As before, you can continue providing your feedback to XPSinfo@microsoft.com