Programming WPF, 2nd Edition

XPS Document Classes

The classes for working with XPS documents are spread across several namespaces, because there are several different levels at which you may wish to work. Table 15-1 shows the various namespaces that contain XPS functionality, and the scenarios for which they are intended.

Table 15-1. Namespaces for working with XPS

Namespace	Purpose of classes
System.Windows.Documents	Contains classes that represent the logical internal structure of XPS documents, and which also add extra runtime functionality for constructing documents
System.Windows.Xps	Abstract API for creating XPS documents, for either printing or writing to disk
System.Windows.Xps.Serialization	Provides fine-grained control of how the XPS file's contents are generated
System.Windows.Xps.Packaging	Provides access to package-level aspects of XPS, such as loading and saving XPS documents, or adding thumbnail images
System.IO.Packaging	Allows reading and writing of any OPC file (not limited to XPS)

XPS file structure is most directly represented by the classes in the System.Windows.Xps.Packaging namespace. If you want to work directly with the streams of data that make up an XPS file, these classes will give you the most control. However, they are not all that convenient to use because of their low-level nature. There is an even lower level beneath the XPS packaging classes: the System.IO.Packaging namespace implements OPC. This is the foundation on which the XPS packaging classes are built. Although you could use the lowest-level ...