diff --git a/subwave_nowplaying.star b/subwave_nowplaying.star
index a3ed250..4896ab4 100644
--- a/subwave_nowplaying.star
+++ b/subwave_nowplaying.star
@@ -213,9 +213,17 @@ ART_ZOOM_DURATION = 200  # 10s round-trip (5s in, 5s out) at the default 50ms/ti
 
 def _art_widget(art_bytes, zoom_scale):
     art = render.Image(src = art_bytes, width = ART_SIZE, height = ART_SIZE)
-    if zoom_scale <= 1.0:
-        return render.Box(width = ART_SLOT, height = ART_SLOT, child = art)
 
+    # Always route through animation.Transformation, even when zoom is off
+    # (a degenerate animation whose two keyframes are both Scale(1.0, 1.0),
+    # i.e. no visible movement). Wrapping the art in a Transformation shifts
+    # its crop by a few pixels versus a bare, unwrapped Image in the same
+    # Box -- confirmed empirically, even at an explicit Scale(1.0, 1.0) --
+    # so a plain-Image "off" path and a Transformation-wrapped zoom path
+    # don't actually agree on framing despite both nominally being "scale
+    # 1.0". Using the same wrapper unconditionally guarantees the "off"
+    # state and the rest state of every zoom level line up exactly.
+    top_scale = max(zoom_scale, 1.0)
     zoom = animation.Transformation(
         child = art,
         duration = ART_ZOOM_DURATION,
@@ -226,7 +234,7 @@ def _art_widget(art_bytes, zoom_scale):
             ),
             animation.Keyframe(
                 percentage = 0.5,
-                transforms = [animation.Scale(zoom_scale, zoom_scale)],
+                transforms = [animation.Scale(top_scale, top_scale)],
                 curve = "ease_in_out",
             ),
             animation.Keyframe(