Raster import was covered in Chapter 1, Importing Spatial Data, subject and exporting is on its way in the next chapter, so we can look strictly into vector <-> raster conversion and processing.
For our use case, we will use EU-DEM dataset, produced using Copernicus data and information funded by European Union - EU-DEM layers. It's one arc second model of the whole European Union (without overseas territories). With its open license, we can use it with no concerns. The dataset is accessible by http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/eu-dem.
As a vector layer, we can use OpenStretMap data for the Poland and Czech Republic administrative units.
In the first step, let's import the dataset as we learned in Chapter 1, Importing Spatial Data. For optimization of import processes, look into metadata, for SRID and size of raster, gdalinfo makes it easy:
user@machine:~/dev/gis/dem$ gdalinfo eudem_dem_5deg_n45e015.tif Driver: GTiff/GeoTIFF Files: eudem_dem_5deg_n45e015.tif...