diff --git a/docker/frontend/src/App.tsx b/docker/frontend/src/App.tsx
index 9ae7690..6c3a3e0 100644
--- a/docker/frontend/src/App.tsx
+++ b/docker/frontend/src/App.tsx
@@ -3108,17 +3108,6 @@ export function Workspace() {
     ...(masks.length ? [{ key: 'masks-clear', label: 'CLEAR', onClick: clearMasks }] : []),
   ];
 
-  // The mark a sub-chip wears on its tile on a phone (see .chip-icon and
-  // .col-sub .chip in app.css): the initials of a phrase — COLOR TEMP -> CT,
-  // PRO NEG HI -> PNH — and the opening letter of a single word. A table of
-  // hand-picked glyphs for every option the app owns would be a second set of
-  // names to keep, and the name under the mark is already there to read.
-  const chipIcon = (d: string): string => {
-    const words = d.split(/\s+/).filter(Boolean);
-    return words.length > 1 ? words.map((w) => w[0]).join('').slice(0, 3).toUpperCase() : d[0].toUpperCase();
-  };
-  const withIcon = (c: ChipDef): ChipDef => (c.divider || c.disabled ? c : { ...c, icon: chipIcon(c.label) });
-
   // A find alone does not narrow its argument: the guard is what tells the rest
   // of the function that g is a panel key and not a group's.
   const isDevPanel = (k: StripKey): k is DevPanel => DEV_PANELS.some((p) => p.key === k);
@@ -3126,8 +3115,8 @@ export function Workspace() {
   const stripChips = (g: Exclude<StripKey, 'wm'>): ChipDef[] => {
     // The two tool strips hold chips that arm the pointer rather than options to
     // pick, so groupDefs has nothing to say about them.
-    if (g === 'fix') return fixChips.map(withIcon);
-    if (g === 'gradient') return gradientChips.map(withIcon);
+    if (g === 'fix') return fixChips;
+    if (g === 'gradient') return gradientChips;
     // LIGHT's four panels: the panel's rows first — each a knob that opens its
     // ruler above — then the picks that close it, because a panel is read as its
     // rows and the picks its name is about.
@@ -3162,7 +3151,7 @@ export function Workspace() {
         ...(g === 'effects'
           ? choiceChips('dr', DR_OPTIONS, String(recipe.adjustments.dynamicRange ?? 'auto'), groupDefs.dr.onPick)
           : []),
-      ].map(withIcon);
+      ];
     }
     const out: ChipDef[] = [
     { key: `hint-${g}`, label: groupDefs[g].label, disabled: true, onClick: () => {} },
@@ -3219,7 +3208,7 @@ export function Workspace() {
         ]
       : []),
     ];
-    return out.map(withIcon);
+    return out;
   };
 
   // RECIPES = this account's own files (SAVE RECENT) + what this session made
diff --git a/docker/frontend/src/styles/app.css b/docker/frontend/src/styles/app.css
index 7738a70..faed2fa 100644
--- a/docker/frontend/src/styles/app.css
+++ b/docker/frontend/src/styles/app.css
@@ -114,11 +114,10 @@
 /* RESET is the way out of an edit, not one more chip: a rule and some air keep
    it apart from the tab's own buttons at the foot of the column. */
 .reset-row { margin-top: 6px; padding-top: 12px; border-top: 1px solid var(--border); }
-/* Three things that belong to the phone alone: the mark a sub-chip wears on its
-   tile, the path back up under the strip, and LIGHT's panels as a chip row. A
-   desktop draws none of them — a chip there is its label, every column is in
-   sight, and LIGHT's panels are the column itself. */
-.chip-icon, .crumb, .dev-chips { display: none; }
+/* Two things that belong to the phone alone: the path back up under the strip,
+   and LIGHT's panels as a chip row. A desktop draws neither — every column is
+   in sight, and LIGHT's panels are the column itself. */
+.crumb, .dev-chips { display: none; }
 .chip-row { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 6px; }
 /* The rule a strip is read across (the mixer's PICK, its bands, the three
    knobs): a line of its own, so it breaks the row it is written into whichever
@@ -1657,7 +1656,17 @@ input[type="range"] { width: 100%; accent-color: var(--accent); }
   .workspace:has(.chips > .col-sub[data-col="options"]) .col-main,
   .workspace:has(.chips > .col-sub[data-col="wm"]) .col-main { display: none; }
 
-  /* --- a chip's own sub-chips: the tiles the strip is drawn as ------------- */
+  /* One strip at a time holds here too: the ruler a knob opens is the last
+     strip of the walk, so it takes the place of the strip that opened it. The
+     panel it came from stands down rather than sitting under the ruler it
+     launched — the path under the bar (.crumb) already names that panel, so
+     the row the panel would hold is a row of the photo spent on a name the
+     finger can read below. With the strip and the bar both gone the ruler is
+     the only thing left between the photo and the path, which is the slot. */
+  .workspace:has(.col[data-col="slider"]) .col-sub[data-col="options"],
+  .workspace:has(.col[data-col="slider"]) .col-main { display: none; }
+
+  /* --- a chip's own sub-chips: the pills the strip is drawn as ------------- */
   .col-sub:not(.wm-extra) {
     flex-direction: row;
     align-items: center;
@@ -1668,36 +1677,6 @@ input[type="range"] { width: 100%; accent-color: var(--accent); }
     overflow-y: hidden;
   }
   .col-sub:not(.wm-extra) .chip-row { flex-wrap: nowrap; }
-  /* A sub-chip whose options are buttons wears them as tiles — a mark over a
-     short name, in a bordered square — the way an icon set is read on a phone.
-     A list of NAMES (the recipes, a frame's history) keeps the pill: there the
-     name is the whole point and a square would cut it off. */
-  .col-sub[data-col="options"] .chip,
-  .col-sub[data-col="mask"] .chip {
-    position: relative;
-    flex: 0 0 auto;
-    width: 60px;
-    height: 60px;
-    flex-direction: column;
-    justify-content: center;
-    gap: 2px;
-    padding: 4px 3px;
-    border-radius: var(--radius-sm);
-  }
-  .chip-icon { display: block; font-family: var(--mono); font-size: 13px; font-weight: 700; color: var(--text-dim); }
-  .col-sub .chip.on .chip-icon { color: inherit; }
-  .col-sub[data-col="options"] .chip .chip-label,
-  .col-sub[data-col="mask"] .chip .chip-label {
-    max-width: 100%;
-    overflow: hidden;
-    text-overflow: ellipsis;
-    white-space: nowrap;
-    font-size: 9px;
-    letter-spacing: 0.04em;
-  }
-  /* PRO is a mark on the corner of the tile, not a third line in it. */
-  .col-sub[data-col="options"] .chip .pro,
-  .col-sub[data-col="mask"] .chip .pro { position: absolute; top: 2px; right: 3px; font-size: 7px; }
   /* The strip's own name is a heading, not a pick: it keeps the leading edge of
      the line and drops the button around it. */
   .col-sub .chip[data-key^="hint-"] {
@@ -1713,7 +1692,7 @@ input[type="range"] { width: 100%; accent-color: var(--accent); }
     color: var(--text-dim);
   }
 
-  /* --- the open ruler: the row over those -------------------------------- */
+  /* --- the open ruler: the strip's own slot ------------------------------ */
   /* A ruler is the photo's own scale, not a panel: no box, no fill, just the
      ticks. They are drawn in the theme's own ink — dark on the light theme,
      light on the dark — at two weights, a finer mark every eighth of the track
@@ -1732,6 +1711,11 @@ input[type="range"] { width: 100%; accent-color: var(--accent); }
     border: 0;
     background: none;
   }
+  /* The way back is the path under the bar (.crumb), which names the panel the
+     ruler came from — the strip this "<" would reopen, one row lower and with
+     the rest of the walk beside it. A wide screen draws no path, so the button
+     is the phone's alone to drop. */
+  .col[data-col="slider"] .back { display: none; }
   .col[data-col="slider"] input[type="range"] {
     -webkit-appearance: none;
     appearance: none;
diff --git a/docker/frontend/src/ui/ChipColumn.tsx b/docker/frontend/src/ui/ChipColumn.tsx
index 7b3ac44..d6d3966 100644
--- a/docker/frontend/src/ui/ChipColumn.tsx
+++ b/docker/frontend/src/ui/ChipColumn.tsx
@@ -17,10 +17,6 @@ export interface ChipDef {
   // CSS colour drawn as a dot on the chip's leading edge — the HSL mixer's band
   // chips name a colour, so they show it too.
   color?: string;
-  // The button's face on a phone, where a sub-chip is a tile: a short mark over
-  // the name (see .col-sub .chip in app.css). Desktop never paints it — the
-  // label alone is what a chip reads as in a column.
-  icon?: string;
   // The chip's own FILL and the text colour that fill can carry (WB's preset
   // table: the swatch the pick paints, printed on the button itself). `bg` wins
   // over the class's own background, so an active button keeps its swatch and
@@ -103,7 +99,6 @@ export function ChipRow({ chips, grid }: { chips: ChipDef[]; grid?: boolean }) {
             }}
           >
             {chip.color ? <span className="chip-dot" data-color={chip.color} style={{ background: chip.color }} /> : null}
-            {chip.icon ? <span className="chip-icon" aria-hidden="true">{chip.icon}</span> : null}
             {/* The name is a box, not the bare text node it used to be: a flex
                 container turns a loose text node into an anonymous item of its
                 own, and on iOS that item stops being painted until the column