There are raster operations and vector operations and Xara can do both. If it loads in bitmaps and textures with them then its doing raster operations. Xara is a hybrid app. Although PSP, PS, Gimp are all hybrids too, I think Xara has what appears to be the best hybrid operations in its class. But you cant say that Xara is a purely vector app because your map is painting pixels by looking up into a bitmapped texture source - even if the shape your texturing is a vector shape that still essentially a raster operation. You can definitively say its a raster operation when you scale an image huge and it pixellates. Neither vector or raster is better in absolute terms they are just different. Some operations are easier to do vector and some raster. Having an app which does both does mean that you don't need to learn two apps but the point is that you need to know which operations are easy in either case. You can draw a line in raster apps and you can fill with pure vector patterns too and sometimes thats the right thing to do and other times its not so good but most would agree that its easier to draw and modify a line in a vector app and a patterns in a raster app. I don't think that its necessarily true that quick or realistic is the right split to say vector or raster as you can do either in either type of operation but some things are quicker in vector and some things and quicker in raster and likewise for realism too. Some things are easy to do in 3D and some things are really hard unless you do them in 3D - its just right tool for the job.