9.3. XPS documents and flow content

XML Paper Specification (XPS) is a combination of a document markup language, which is a subset of XAML, and code support for viewing and printing documents. Although you won’t read this in the Microsoft documentation, many see XPS as Microsoft’s answer to Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) for creating print-ready documents. Fortunately, that debate is irrelevant to us because the classes that provide XPS support are a fantastic way of incorporating documents within WPF applications.

One use for XPS documents is incorporating highly readable content within desktop applications, blurring the line between online and offline applications. One such application is the Mix Reader (figure 9.9) created by Conchango for the Mix UK 2007 conference. It combines offline document reading with online capabilities including RSS reading and Facebook and Twitter integration.