How to Convert XPS To PDF File For Free

Coverting an XPS file to PDF using virtual printer and your web browser

By on June 29, 2009

The XPS file extension is an XML Paper Specification from Microsoft. It is build for Windows platform only. If you have received an XPS document in your email, or your friend has sent you a document in XPS format, then what you can do? There are a couple of options for you. One, you can always open XPS file on your browser. Second, convert XPS to PDF format.

I have already explained how to open XPS file. In this article, we will look at the conversation process.

Note that there are tons of services available that helps you to convert xps file to pdf format and they charge few bucks. With this method, you don’t have to pay anything online or buy a software or apps just to convert this sleazy Microsoft format.

The best part is, once the file is converted, you can view it as a PDF or again convert the PDF file into .Doc format, that is, If you want your XPS file in the .doc format. So, let’s begin:

Convert XPS to PDF: Introduction

Firstly, we will download a virtual printer, a free one for now, and use this freeware to make a virtual PDF file out of our XPS file. This method is pretty much straight forward and easy to implement for extracting the PDF form from the XPS file.

Convert XPS to PDF: Instructions

Here is a simple step by step instructions on how you to achieve conversion:

Step 1: Open XPS file – Firstly, open your XPS file from Microsoft application addon (download) or using XPS addons for Firefox, or with the Internet explorer browser (download)

Step: 2: Get a free virtual printer – As we are in need of a virtual printer, you can download a freeware printer called Cute PDF which is another popular printing tool for Windows user. And yeah, if you have any virtual printer already installed, then go ahead and try it out;You can use any of the tool as it is a matter of personal choice.

Step 3: Begin XPS to PDF conversion process – Now open the .XPS file and go to File and Print, select  Cute PDF from printers list and click on Print. When you do this, you will be automatically requested to save the file on to your desktop in a .PDF file extension.

You can again convert PDF to DOC form by using Google docs or other free online service. That’s about it! We finally have a solution to convert XPS into PDF file without having to sweat our guts out!

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  • et

    You save my day! One freeware use TLK file extension. I was able to make XPS file but local library support only PDF and now I could print it.

    Yes, I suppouse to buy a printer…

  • Mahdi

    Nice Job, Thank you so much

  • Elsa

    My problem is I can’t even open the XPS files, even though I have XPSViewer program :-(

  • paula67mi

    Fantastic. Super easy. Thanks!

  • Magnus

    Nice work. you saved my day not fiddling round with this too long. Thanks.

  • Bart

    It doesn’t work for me. I converted a DjVu-format to XPS.
    I could format a few pages from XPS to PDF but the first attempt it only converted 9 pages (out of a bit over 1000 pages), the second time 6 out of 50.
    Too bad.

  • joj

    how do you use google docs to change a xps file to pdf/jpg or anything else? lol

  • DSube

    Thank you so much for this great tip! Worked perfectly

  • Stevo

    if you don’t want the hassle of pre-installation software, required with cutePDF then use BillZip instead.

  • MelanieJane

    This worked fantastically well, and when the pop up box asked if I wanted to install the ask.com thing I just unticked it. EASY!!!

  • jckun

    is this fake?

  • James Day

    I read all the comments posted and saw most of them were praising this product – the PDF Creator – as the solution to a problem. It seems I had a similar problem, so I was looking for a program just like this one! After all the good marks it received, I was eager to install and get started.

    And I did get started all right …. in fact, the program seems to come with a free gift. This gift was in addition to the add-on forcing the installer to download the useless and unwanted Ask.com toolbar!

    Yep! – A free gift – ‘cept this gift comes with a warning label from my anti-virus software warning me that a threat named W32.CLAM.2010.09.01 had been detected.

    Of course, installation was stopped, any remnants from the installation files were deleted, and my computer received its Saturday night bath a bit earlier in the week than usual.

    People just have to be careful when using free software. The “bargain” just may come with an expensive wake-up call!

  • Sid

    Thnx 4 t informtion… useful one!!!

  • Zalman

    Dear Sid, God bless you son, for that ideas you provide. You just done my day better to sustain alive and well clear-minded. Thank’s!

  • Ibrahim

    Good Job Sid, I am using it on Windows 7 and it’s working smooth.
    Thanx a lott

  • Pierce

    Installed this on Vista Ultimate (64-bit) it works great.

  • beware

    Just so you know, this program also has an ask.com toolbar in it that it tries to install, so just beware.

  • Joel

    Great posting… great way of converting xps to pdf file.

    THANKS!!!

  • Justbrew

    Keep up the good work Sid !!!

    Thanks for posting these type of articles

  • Jaime Caro

    Muchas gracias por su ayuda.Excelente consejo. Me ha funcionado a la perfección, inmediatamente, sin problemas.

  • Dava

    Saved a lot of my time. works great thanks!

  • Jae Won

    Thanks. I really look forward to finding how to convert XPS to PDF without watermarks for free.

  • Genny

    I try with the same method but for XPS Viewer I use XPS Annotator.

  • Mark

    Thanks so much. Works perfect and I’m using XP

  • Nitan Parikh

    Worked great, thanks. Even posted it to kindle to view on the run. Great product…

  • Lucho

    Thank you it worked awesome!!!

  • pagemark

    Better was to convert to PDF is to use XpsConvert from Pagemark.
    Also support most raster formats.

    gxps does not support all image formats that can be contain within a xps document.

  • http://claim-services.com Micah

    Works great. Thanks for the tip.

  • http://blog.rubypdf.com Steven Li

    gxps(part of GhostPDL ) can Convert XPS documents to PDF format like this:
    gxps -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=test.pdf -dNOPAUSE test.xps

  • Martin

    Nonsense Does Not work. what happens if you are using windows XP ? – XP simply will not open the file to print – try posting a solution that works for XP users ! . This does not work for xp users as stated ! please try again !

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