Working with raster data is a fundamental requirement when you are requested to build a spatial data infrastructure, which is a commonly used term today to define an information system using spatial data.

You are probably already skilled at using a simple raster format such as Geotiff. Configuring raster formats on GeoServer and querying the resulting layers with the WMS protocol is a common and pretty way to use them as base maps in your application.

In this chapter, we will focus on more advanced topics such as using raster in their native formats, not just as a map, and storing them in different ways. As usual, you are not requested to have any special prior knowledge, but a sound understanding of the difference between vector and raster data and how the latter is represented will help your journey through the recipes.