Learning about data integrity—how do headers actually work?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently taking an online course about file systems and binary data, and I want to experiment with manual hex editing. I want to see exactly which line of code I need to change to corrupt the file so that it becomes unreadable by a standard image viewer.

It’s a fascinating way to understand how software identifies different file formats and where the "breaking point" of a digital document actually lies. What happens to the metadata when you intentionally corrupt the file?

Thanks in advance.