What is hex editing for glitch art?

Hex editing involves opening files in a hexadecimal editor and directly manipulating the raw data bytes. For glitch art, this technique produces controlled corruption by changing specific values within image or video files.

Every digital file is ultimately a sequence of bytes represented as hexadecimal values (00 to FF). Hex editors display this raw data and allow direct modification. Changing values in an image file’s data section corrupts the visual output -shifting colors, displacing pixels, or creating geometric artifacts.

The technique requires understanding basic file structure. Most formats have a header section containing format information (dimensions, color depth, compression type) followed by the actual image data. Corrupting the header often breaks the file entirely; modifying the data section produces visual glitches while keeping the file readable.

BMP and TIFF files work best for hex editing since they store uncompressed data predictably. JPEG files produce interesting results but behave less predictably due to compression. Our hex editing tutorial covers file structure basics and safe editing zones for different formats.