Comparison of OpenXPS and PDF

This is a comparison of the OpenXPS document file format with the PDF file format. Both file format standards are essentially containers for representing digital content in a paper-like fashion.^[1]

Design aims

The differences between Open XML Paper Specification (OpenXPS) and the Portable Document Format (PDF) can be traced to their heritage and the manner of their development, as they have different design goals and different groups providing input.

The different goals in the development of OpenXPS and PDF resulted in different principles and design tradeoffs between the file formats.

Comparison

File format	OpenXPS	PDF
Based on a format developed by	Microsoft	Adobe Systems
Standardized by	Ecma International[2]	ISO
First public release date	2006[3]	1993[4]
Latest stable version	Ecma International Standard ECMA-388 — Open XML Paper Specification — 1st Edition	ISO 32000-1:2008 — Document management — Portable document format — Part 1: PDF 1.7
Latest standardised version	Ecma International Standard ECMA-388 — Open XML Paper Specification — 1st Edition	ISO 32000-1:2008 — Document management — Portable document format — Part 1: PDF 1.7
Language type	Markup language (XML)[5][6]	PDF is a database of objects, created from PostScript and also directly generated from many applications.
XML schema representation	XML Schema (W3C) (XSD) and RELAX NG (ISO/IEC 19757-2)[7]	N/A
Compression format	ZIP[5][6][8]	LZW for both text and images; JPEG, JPEG 2000, and RLE for images only[9]
Container structure	Open Packaging Conventions (ISO/IEC 29500-2:2008)[5][6]
3D graphic content	X3D (ISO/IEC 19775/19776)[10]	U3D (Standard ECMA-363)[11][12]
Portable / Multiplatform	Yes[13]	Yes[13]
Full file content compression	Yes[13]	Compression of collections of objects[14]
Fast page by page download from web servers	Yes[13]	Yes[13]
Multiple documents in one file	Yes[13]	Yes[15]
Document bookmarks and outline	Yes[13][16]	Yes[13][17]
Reflowable	No[18]	page-only with tagged PDF layer[19]
Hyperlinks	Yes[20][13][21]	Yes[13][17]
Page thumbnails	Yes[20][13]	Yes[13][22]
Annotations	Yes[20]	Yes[13][17]
Image transparencies	Yes[13]	Yes[13]
Gradient fills	Yes[13][21]	Yes[13]
Alpha channel in color definitions	Yes[13]	No[13]
Support for multiple transparency blending modes	?	Yes[14]
Change tracking	No[13]	No[13]
Password protection	Yes[13]	Yes[13][17]
Digital signatures	Yes[13][6][8][20]	Yes[17][23]
JPEG (RGB and CMYK) (ISO/IEC 10918-1)	Yes[13][8]	Yes[23]
JPEG 2000 (ISO/IEC 15444-1)	No[13]	Yes[23]
JBIG2 for grayscale images	No[13]	Yes[14]
PNG	Yes[13]	Yes[13]
TIFF (RGB and CMYK)	Yes[13]	No[13]
HD Photo / JPEG XR (ISO/IEC 29199-2:2009)	Yes[5]	No[13]
Gray support	Yes[13]	Yes[13]
RGB support	Yes[13]	Yes[13]
CMYK support	Yes[13]	Yes[13]
Spot color support	Yes[13]	Yes[13]
Filename extensions	oxps[10]	pdf[24]
Internet media types	application/oxps[10]	application/pdf
Standard licensing	Ecma copyrighted free download	ISO copyrighted free download
File format	OpenXPS	PDF

See also

• Comparison of document markup languages
• List of document markup languages

Further reading

• Cohn, Richard. The Portable Document Format Reference Manual. ISBN 978-0201626285. 
• King, James C.. A format design case study: PDF. ISBN 1-58113-848-2. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1012807.1012810. 

References

1. ^ Microsoft Watch - Business Applications - PDF and XPS: When Acronyms Compete
2. ^ XPS format passes first standardisation test | printweek.com | Latest Print Industry News, Jobs, Features, Product Reviews, Used Printing and Packaging Machinery
3. ^ XML Paper Specification
4. ^ All About Adobe PDF - Webopedia.com
5. ^ ^{a b c d} http://www.globalgraphics.com/xps/faq.pdf
6. ^ ^{a b c d} XPS: XML Paper Specification
7. ^ Standard ECMA-388
8. ^ ^{a b c} xml paper specification News and Other Resources | ZDNet
9. ^ [PDF Reference, Sixth edition, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/pdf_reference_1-7.pdf], p. 39
10. ^ ^{a b c} http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-388.pdf
11. ^ Acrobat 3D Developer Center | Adobe Acrobat 3D Developer Center
12. ^ Ferris, Sara (2005). "U3D format debuts in Acrobat 7". CADalyst. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BLL/is_2_22/ai_n13487390/. 
13. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an} [1]^{[dead link]}
14. ^ ^{a b c} http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=51502 ISO 32000-1:2008
15. ^ A9 PDF Binders
16. ^ http://www.pdfzone.com/c/a/Authoring/Look-Out-Acrobat-Microsoft-XPS-Is-on-Your-Tail/
17. ^ ^{a b c d e} PDF Intro
18. ^ An Introduction to Windows Presentation Foundation
19. ^ Web accessibility: web standards and ... - Google Books
20. ^ ^{a b c d} XPS Annotator | XPSDev
21. ^ ^{a b} Microsoft Adds XPS In Office 12 To Fight Adobe - InformationWeek
22. ^ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/219/1/meckler94.pdf
23. ^ ^{a b c} http://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-europe-08/Filiol/Presentation/bh-eu-08-filiol.pdf
24. ^ explaining PostScript

External links

• ECMA-388 Open XML Paper Specification
• ISO 32000-1:2008 Document management — Portable document format — Part 1: PDF 1.7