FILE FORMAT GUIDE
XPS File: What It Is & How to Open It
An XPS file is a fixed-layout paginated document package built from XML and other resources under Open Packaging Conventions.
Quick facts
- Extension
- .xps
- Format
- XML Paper Specification Document
- Category
- document
- MIME type
- Not reviewed
- Standard / developer
- Microsoft / Ecma International
- Open with
- XPS Viewer
What is XPS?
XPS packaging uses ZIP, XML and Unicode conventions to organize fixed document parts. A generic ZIP header alone cannot establish that a package satisfies XPS relationships and content rules.
How to open XPS
XPS ViewerWindows
Open the file with XPS Viewer. On Windows versions where it is not installed, add XPS Viewer from Optional Features before trying again.
Common uses and compatibility
- Exchange fixed-layout paginated documents
Things to check
- A ZIP reader can list package members but does not render or validate XPS page semantics.
Advanced inspection
These developer and command-line workflows inspect structure or metadata. They are not the default way most people open the file.
Python zipfileCommand-line tool or library
Open the file with zipfile.ZipFile("document.xps", "r") and call infolist() to inspect package member names and sizes. Do not extract untrusted members; ZipFile.Path does not sanitize filenames.
Technical details
- Signature
- Not reviewed
- Encoding
- Not applicable
- Container
- Open Packaging Conventions ZIP package
- Compression
- ZIP entry compression
Related formats
- Portable Document Format
Both represent paginated documents, but PDF and XPS use different document structures and specifications.
- EPUB Publication
EPUB targets publication and reading-system workflows, while XPS is a fixed-layout document package.
Sources & review
Sources reviewed 2026-09-19.