diff --git a/lab/control/ui/app.js b/lab/control/ui/app.js
index 49d2f1e..74d4a59 100644
--- a/lab/control/ui/app.js
+++ b/lab/control/ui/app.js
@@ -391,6 +391,24 @@
     root.setProperty("--pad-t", Math.round(covered.top) + "px");
     /* The floating panels clear the ladder; the camera, above, does not. */
     root.setProperty("--pad-b", Math.round(padBottom) + "px");
+    /* The bottom edge is the only one that needs saying twice. --pad-l, -r
+       and -t are the same number against either rectangle, because the
+       viewport starts at the top-left corner of the window and the rails are
+       drawn over it. The bottom is where the two part company, and which one
+       a rule wants depends on what it is positioned inside:
+
+         --pad-b         against the window. The page verdict and anything
+                         else that sits in .app, which the ladder is in.
+         --pad-b-canvas  against the board. The HUD overlay is laid out
+                         inside .viewport, whose bottom edge is already above
+                         the ladder — so clearing the ladder a second time
+                         lifts the verdict a whole ladder higher than the card
+                         it only had to clear by a gap.
+
+       Same number the camera is handed, for the same reason: it is what
+       covers the board rather than what is occupied at the foot of the
+       window. */
+    root.setProperty("--pad-b-canvas", Math.round(covered.bottom) + "px");
     if (board && board.setViewInset) board.setViewInset(covered);
   }
 
diff --git a/lab/control/ui/replay-app.js b/lab/control/ui/replay-app.js
index d9715da..e763e9b 100644
--- a/lab/control/ui/replay-app.js
+++ b/lab/control/ui/replay-app.js
@@ -218,6 +218,11 @@
     root.setProperty("--pad-r", Math.round(covered.right) + "px");
     root.setProperty("--pad-t", Math.round(covered.top) + "px");
     root.setProperty("--pad-b", Math.round(padBottom) + "px");
+    /* The camera's answer, published, because the HUD overlay is laid out
+       inside the viewport and so wants the same one: what covers the *board*
+       — here the transport and whatever the docks hide — and not the ladder
+       below it. Why only this edge needs a second token is in app.js. */
+    root.setProperty("--pad-b-canvas", Math.round(covered.bottom) + "px");
     if (board && board.setViewInset) board.setViewInset(covered);
   }
 
diff --git a/lab/control/ui/style.css b/lab/control/ui/style.css
index 26eed98..d49745d 100644
--- a/lab/control/ui/style.css
+++ b/lab/control/ui/style.css
@@ -613,6 +613,16 @@ pre.out.live { max-height: 38vh; overflow-y: auto; }
   position: absolute; inset: 0; pointer-events: none;
   padding: 12px calc(var(--pad-r, 0px) + 12px) 12px calc(var(--pad-l, 0px) + 12px);
   padding-top: calc(var(--pad-t, 0px) + 12px);
+  /* The fourth side, and it reads a different token from the other three.
+     Those are the same number against the window or against the board; this
+     one is not, because the rung ladder is below the viewport rather than
+     over it. --pad-b clears the ladder — right for .verdict, which is in
+     .app — and this box is inside .viewport, whose bottom edge is already
+     above the ladder. --pad-b-canvas is the number measured there, so the
+     verdict and the transcript stop on top of a bottom-docked card rather
+     than under it, and without a whole ladder of dead air when nothing is
+     docked at all. */
+  padding-bottom: calc(var(--pad-b-canvas, 0px) + 12px);
   display: grid; grid-template-rows: auto 1fr auto; gap: 8px;
   transition: padding .18s ease;
 }