IPS XPS: Zoran's Host and Embedded XPS Solution

I recently spoke with Kevin Andresen at Zoran to discuss XPS adoption, Zoran's IPS XPS Interpreter and trends in the market for this file format.

With regards to XPS adoption, Kevin pointed out that XPS native printer solutions are here today as seen by the introductions from Fuji-Xerox, Konica Minolta and Toshiba. The strategy appears to be on offering this XPS capability on the color devices first. He anticipates that consumer inkjet devices with XPS capability will be available in the Q4-07/Q1-08 timeframe. Kevin also sees large format printers adopting XPS in order to work with Microsoft's HD Photo format (JPEG XR). This new image format provides higher dynamic range and improved color fidelity, which is a key feature for photographic and point-of-sale display applications.

With IPS-XPS, Zoran appears to be taking advantage of their expertise in embedded PDLs for XPS. Kevin indicated that IPS XPS was designed initially as an embedded solution that consumes XPS documents with disk and memory constraints and utilizes the format's streaming capability. Moreover, the source code for IPS-XPS was developed so that it could also be implemented as a host-based solution and includes this additional functionality. Kevin stated that "this provides consistent output results for manufacturers offering different printers with either host based or embedded solutions." Manufacturers appear to find host based/embedded flexibility an attractive feature given that Zoran has succeeded in obtaining 10 design wins from 8 companies.

Kevin commented on the trends he sees in the XPS technology market. It appears that the adoption of XPS is not only dependent on the number of computers running Vista, but also on applications supporting Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Kevin points out that we are currently seeing many customers using applications that are "XPS Aware" such as Office 2007. XPS Aware applications are designed for the GDI print path but provide the capability for generating XPS documents. As new applications come to the market using the WPF, customers will be able to take full advantage of XPS using the new print path incorporated in the WPF architecture. Kevin mentioned that it will be interesting to see how Silverlight, a web-based subset of WPF, will increase awareness of XPS.

With regards to XPS Land at Graph Expo, Kevin stated that during the show "every RIP manufacturer had XPS on their radar screen." He also mentioned that he spoke to several attendees from service bureaus who are now receiving XPS jobs. Kevin indicated that “people are not only aware of XPS, but are actively working to find solutions for this new file format.”