Ecma/TC46/2007/015

Ecma TC46 – XML Paper Specification (XPS)

Martin Bailey – Global Graphics, TC46 Chair

Takashi Hashizume – Fuji Xerox, TC46 Vice Chair

6 August 2007

Why XML Paper Specification, and why now?Why XML Paper Specification, and why now?

ContributorsContributors

TC46 Terms of ReferenceTC46 Terms of Reference

Ecma International, Key to successEcma International, Key to success

TC46 meeting scheduleTC46 meeting schedule

Agenda

Our lives revolve around ‘paperwork’

We all read many documents every day

We each create, comment on, contribute to,

update or complete many documents every

month

Document workflows increasingly cross

boundaries between physical and electronic

paper

Geographic separation of collaborators or of

document creators and consumers is

increasingly irrelevant

The number of collaborators on any single

project is stable or growing

Deadlines and response times are continually

shortening; we live in the “internet age”

Document peripherals (scanners, printers, etc)

are more sophisticated and more tightly

integrated with PCs and applications

As a result the documents we interact with are

increasingly created, collaborated on,

transmitted, read and stored electronically,

rather than printed or written on paper

But the paperless office has not yet arrived,

necessitating standards that enable

interoperability between document peripherals

and software applications

As the TC45 introduction said:

• Fortunately – The Information Technology Age

enabled the creation of documents simply and

massively

• Unfortunately – It is difficult to share, exchange,

preserve information – Billions of documents in binary

formats

Using XML for file formats …

Simplifies low-level file creation and reading• A wide variety of tool-sets are available

• Increases choice of applications because of lower cost of entry for vendors

Increases robustness• Easy schema validation allows more frequent and more

complete testing of created files

• Improves creator quality

• Allows easy diagnosis of faults in document workflows

• Schema validation enhanced by grammar-specific test tools

Enables cross-application functionality• XML is now widely used in information transfer

• XSL-T (and other tools) can be used to translate between different grammars

• Data can therefore be extracted or inserted into XML documents

Standardised XML

Standardising XML grammars moves innovation

to user-visible issues

• Broadens the reach of many products, increasing

competition

• Differentiation no longer focused on file format

handling, but on real user benefits in application

functionality

• In some cases whole new application categories

become economically viable

International support for XML-based standards

California

Consistent requirements lead to process for consistent legislation in US states

Minnesota

TexasAll of these states have now dropped or down-graded the proposed legislation shown here, but it seems that the reason for dropping them was not caused by incorrect requirements analysis.

The document life cycle

Concept&

Design

Writing&

EditingArchiving

Approvals

Output&

Distribution

Review&

Comments

Different document requirements

Authoring document formats• Information content is the primary value

• Full editability and round-trip capability must be retained

• Document format intimately tied to document usage to maximise retention of semantics

• Often advantageous to allow re-flow for reading devices with different form factors, e.g. computer screens, mobile devices and printed output

Distribution document formats• Information content and appearance are both valuable

• Appearance must often be guaranteed between screen and printed views

• Confidence in fidelity is more important than editability

• Document format not tied to semantics, allowing broader application in more use cases

• Format should be self-contained

Authoring & distribution stages

Authoring

Distribution

Either or both

Writing&

EditingArchiving

Approvals

Output&

Distribution

Review&

Comments

Concept&

Design

XPS: based on standards

XPS is based on a number of other standard (de facto or de jure) technologies alongside XML :

Open Packaging Conventions & Markup Compatibility (ECMA-376)

• ZIP (Physical Package as defined in OPC)

– Simplifies aggregation of XML and binary content

– Packaging XML in ZIP is becoming common practice

OpenType

• Standardised cross-platform typeface storage

International Color Consortium (ICC) colour profiles

• Standardised colour profile storage

TIFF, PNG, JPEG

• Widely used image formats, supporting a variety of colour spaces, bit depths and compression algorithms (lossless and lossy)

HD Photo

• Provides extended color support with lossless and lossy compression

• Public commitment to submit HD Photo to formal standards organization

Availability of tool sets

Rich and mature open-source tool sets, including open source, are available for:

• XML

• ZIP

• OpenType (rendering)

• ICC-based colour management

• TIFF, PNG, JPEG

Mostly written in C, C++ and/or Java

• Minimal cross-platform portability issues

Tools for OPC rapidly emerging

• Developers supporting ECMA-376

TC45/TC46 work comparison

TC45

• Office Open XML

• Authoring document format

• Retains semantics and dynamic metadata including styling and template information and support for complex document authoring capabilities

• Designed to support office productivity applications

– Word processing, presentations, spreadsheets

TC46

• XML Paper Specification

• Distribution document format

• Emphasises exact fidelity of document appearance

• Retention of document semantics limited to those sufficient for accessibility

• Exclusion of programmatic capabilities to ensure fidelity & enable trustworthy documents

• Designed to support electronic paper scenarios and print environments

Other distribution document formats

Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)

Widespread implementation, rich tool set

But:

• Not based on XML

– Format-specific object & content stream formats

– Does not meet common requirements from government and other organizations for XML-based specifications

• Requires PDF-specific tool set, cannot be built with standards-based, open-source SDKs

• Addresses areas beyond electronic paper (sounds, movies etc) so not always suited for direct consumption by document peripherals

Why standardise XPS?

Remove any barriers to adoption, allowing usage in any scenario on any platform

Collaborative effort with interested parties will ensure that documentation meets widespread needs of developers and the industry

Community-based development of future versions can lead to functionality closely aligned with broad-base of user requirements, without being limited by a single vendor’s goals

Why standardise XPS now?

There has been rapid adoption of the XPS format from

users, developers and device manufacturers

The launch of a new page description language is a rare

occurrence, especially with a significant user base virtually

from day one

XPS breaks new ground in applicability to both document

sharing and all printing requirements, from home inkjets to

conventional professional print devices

This is combined with an XML base, as widely demanded

by diverse organizations in government and business

Why is XPS standardisation so exciting?

Most file formats are either developed entirely by standards organizations, or by a single vendor

• File formats developed entirely by standards groups usually take a very long time to reach maturity and widespread acceptance

• File formats owned and maintained by a single vendor may not achieve a breadth of functionality required by users

Microsoft has developed a solid first version of XPS, and delivered tool sets to their user base; several tens of million users already have these tools

Multiple vendors have already delivered or announced independent implementations

Enabling the standards community to take ownership of XPS will allow even broader input and discussion of new functional requirements in up-coming versions

The standardization of XPS gives us the best of both worlds:

Rapid design driven by a single, large vendor, accompanied by implementations by multiple vendors from that specification

Following that with an early opportunity for further community-based development and standardization

XPS co-sponsors

Autodesk, Inc

Brother Industries, Ltd

Canon, Inc

FUJIFILM Corporation

Global Graphics Software Ltd

Hewlett Packard Company

Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc

Lexmark International, Inc

Microsoft Corporation

QualityLogic Inc

Ricoh Company, Ltd

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd

Software Imaging Ltd

TOSHIBA Corporation

Xerox Corporation

Zoran Corporation

Ecma TC46

XML Paper Specification

Terms of Reference

Terms of reference for TC46

Scope:

• The goal of the Technical Committee is to produce a formal standard for an XML-based electronic paper format and XML-based page description language which is consistent with existing implementations of the format called the XML Paper Specification (XPS).

• The Technical Committee will use the format called the XML Paper Specification (XPS) as a starting point with the aim to provide a standard, secure, and highly trustworthy format that enables a wide set of applications, devices, tools and platforms to implement compatible paginated-document workflows.

• An additional goal will be to enable the interoperability of independently created software and hardware systems that produce, consume or otherwise process XPS content.

• The Technical Committee will be responsible for the ongoing maintenance and evolution of the standard.

Terms of reference for TC46

The objective of full compatibility with the existing XPS Format is adopted to:

• Guarantee continuous use of the existing base of XPS documents without losing any of the functionality and minimizing disruption caused by market confusion between versions of the same specification

• Maximize the benefits of implementing the standard, both to vendors and to users

• Ensure interoperability with document peripheral devices already on the market

• Guarantee interoperability by enabling standard-based tools for XML 1.0, ZIP etc to create, read and write files conforming to the standardized file format

• Support the needs of governments and businesses to submit, distribute, archive and preserve documents using an Open Standardized Format

• Enable standard transformations using W3C XSLT (or similar techniques) to extract or repurpose information from the file format

• Support integration of custom defined schemas

Terms of reference for TC46

Program of work:

1. Produce a formal standard for an XML-based electronic paper format and XML-based page description language which is consistent with existing implementations of the format called the XML Paper Specification, including:

– Produce a fully documented and unambiguous standard for an XML-based electronic paper format and page description language.

– Produce appropriate W3C XML Schemas to enable automatic verification of files written to the standard.

– Enable interoperability between existing industry implementations of applications, devices, tools and platforms.

(cont)

Terms of reference for TC46

Program of work (cont):

2. Assume responsibility for the ongoing maintenance and evolution of this Ecma International standard

3. Support backwards compatibility with implementations targeted to prior versions of the standard

4. Evaluate and consider proposal for complementary or related additional technologies

5. Establish and maintain liaison with other Ecma TCs and with other Standards Setting Organizations (SSOs) as appropriate to facilitate and promulgate the work of the TC

6. Evaluate and consider contributing the Ecma standard to an ISO and/or IEC TC for approval and adoption

Why Ecma International?

Excellent industry experience and track record

Longevity, credibility, broad acceptance

Efficient and effective organization and processes

Respected international presence

Rapid development of consensus-based standards

Successful partnership with ISO

• submission of ISO approved initiatives & standards

• ISO standard addresses end user requirement

• FAST Track program

• Provision of guidance and direction for submission to ISO/IEC

1st TC46 meeting

Held on July 23rd in Cambridge, UK

• Hosted by Global Graphics Software, Ltd

Highlights

• The meeting was attended by 26 people, made up of Ecma staff and representatives from 17 members. Ecma staff explained some of the technicalities of standards development, and the committee reviewed its scope and work items as approved by the Ecma General Assembly.

• A technical editor was appointed for the development of the XPS standard, and several decisions about working process were made. A meeting schedule was also defined for the next year, with hosts, locations and dates set as accurately as possible.

• The committee also discussed potential liaisons with other standards groups, including Ecma TC45 (the Office Open XML standard includes the Open Packaging Conventions used by XPS) and ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29 (recently announced as considering standardisation of HD Photo as JPEG XR).

Planned TC46 meetings

26-28 September 2007, Tokyo, Japan

Week commencing 14 or 21 January 2008, Southwest of USA

Week commencing 14 April 2008, Oxford, UK

9-11 July 2008, Redmond, WA, USA

8-10 September 2008, Japan

In addition a telephone conference has been scheduled for 30th August, 2007.