Microsoft has showed off its Metro spool file format that aims to increase the print quality in Longhorn, the upcoming version of Windows.
The company demonstrated the technology during Bill Gates's opening keynote at WinHEC in Seattle on Monday.
The format uses XML to describe image features that would otherwise be formatted as a bitmap. Because data is lost in such conversions, Metro's approach ensures a higher picture quality.
Adobe's PostScript printing standard uses a similar descriptive file format.
Metro will be licensed royalty free and will ship as part of Longhorn in late 2006.
Do you agree?
Have your say on this article