diff --git a/subwave_nowplaying.star b/subwave_nowplaying.star
index 8a3d3b2..d613733 100644
--- a/subwave_nowplaying.star
+++ b/subwave_nowplaying.star
@@ -105,21 +105,22 @@ def main(config):
 # and it never appeared to "zoom back in". A short loop guarantees at least
 # one full out-and-back cycle plays before that happens.
 #
-# Art is rendered oversized (45x45, vs. the 32x32 display slot) since
-# animation.Scale has no visible effect on a widget whose declared size
-# already matches its container. Only ever scaling *up* from 1.0 (never
-# below) is deliberate, not cosmetic: this app originally scaled down to
-# ~32/45 to "zoom out" from a corner reached via animation.Translate, which
-# produced a real, on-device black border. Empirical testing (rendering the
-# actual Row layout at native canvas size, no forced output dimensions)
-# showed the outer Box auto-fits an oversized child to its own size at
-# animation.Scale(1.0, 1.0) -- so scaling *down* from there shrinks the
-# already-fitted image further, exposing background outside its bounds
-# (the black border). Scaling *up* only ever crops further into the image,
-# which is always safe.
-ART_SIZE = 45
+# Art is rendered slightly oversized (36x36, vs. the 32x32 display slot).
+# animation.Scale is only ever applied at 1.0 or above here -- empirically,
+# scaling this *below* 1.0 (tried while chasing a "show the literal whole
+# image at rest" design) reintroduces a real, on-device black-border bug:
+# below roughly 0.9-0.95 a visible gap opens up along one edge, well before
+# the math (scaled size vs. box size) would predict any gap at all, so it
+# isn't a simple "runs out of image" overflow -- treat scale < 1.0 as
+# unsafe regardless of the numbers. That rules out "native size at rest,
+# shrink down to reveal everything" -- so instead ART_SIZE is kept just
+# barely larger than ART_SLOT: at the safe floor of scale = 1.0, only
+# ART_SLOT/ART_SIZE (~89%) of the image is visible, which reads as
+# "fully zoomed out" (a sliver cropped off each edge, not noticeable) while
+# leaving just enough headroom above 1.0 for a real zoom-in effect.
+ART_SIZE = 36
 ART_SLOT = 32
-ART_ZOOM_SCALE = 1.4  # how far in to zoom
+ART_ZOOM_SCALE = 1.4  # how far in to zoom, relative to the rest state
 ART_ZOOM_DURATION = 200  # 10s round-trip (5s in, 5s out) at the default 50ms/tick
 
 def _art_widget(art_bytes):