diff --git a/src/brush_paint_opt.rs b/src/brush_paint_opt.rs
index 587f8d76..f169e278 100644
--- a/src/brush_paint_opt.rs
+++ b/src/brush_paint_opt.rs
@@ -35,16 +35,21 @@ pub struct Axis {
 }
 
 pub fn default_axes() -> Vec<Axis> {
+    // Bounds tightened to keep the search inside a sane neighbourhood
+    // around the original brush-sizing guess. Wider ranges let the
+    // optimizer find a "smear" basin (tiny brush + huge pen-lift +
+    // low score gate) that covers the corpus by repainting every
+    // pixel 7-8× — visually awful even though all metrics pass.
     vec![
-        Axis { name: "brush_radius_factor",     lo: 0.40, hi: 1.50, is_int: false,
+        Axis { name: "brush_radius_factor",     lo: 0.70, hi: 1.20, is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.brush_radius_factor = v, get: |p| p.brush_radius_factor },
-        Axis { name: "brush_radius_percentile", lo: 0.70, hi: 1.00, is_int: false,
+        Axis { name: "brush_radius_percentile", lo: 0.85, hi: 1.00, is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.brush_radius_percentile = v, get: |p| p.brush_radius_percentile },
         Axis { name: "brush_radius_offset_px",  lo: 0.0,  hi: 1.0,  is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.brush_radius_offset_px = v, get: |p| p.brush_radius_offset_px },
-        Axis { name: "polish_iters",            lo: 0.0,  hi: 12.0, is_int: true,
+        Axis { name: "polish_iters",            lo: 0.0,  hi: 4.0,  is_int: true,
             set: |p, v| p.polish_iters = v as u32, get: |p| p.polish_iters as f32 },
-        Axis { name: "polish_search_factor",    lo: 0.10, hi: 4.0,  is_int: false,
+        Axis { name: "polish_search_factor",    lo: 0.30, hi: 1.20, is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.polish_search_factor = v, get: |p| p.polish_search_factor },
         Axis { name: "bg_penalty",              lo: 0.0,  hi: 20.0, is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.bg_penalty = v, get: |p| p.bg_penalty },
@@ -54,21 +59,21 @@ pub fn default_axes() -> Vec<Axis> {
             set: |p, v| p.overpaint_penalty = v, get: |p| p.overpaint_penalty },
         Axis { name: "step_size_factor",        lo: 0.20, hi: 0.90, is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.step_size_factor = v, get: |p| p.step_size_factor },
-        Axis { name: "lookahead_steps",         lo: 1.0,  hi: 12.0, is_int: true,
+        Axis { name: "lookahead_steps",         lo: 2.0,  hi: 6.0,  is_int: true,
             set: |p, v| p.lookahead_steps = v as usize, get: |p| p.lookahead_steps as f32 },
         Axis { name: "n_directions",            lo: 8.0,  hi: 64.0, is_int: true,
             set: |p, v| p.n_directions = v as usize, get: |p| p.n_directions as f32 },
         Axis { name: "momentum_weight",         lo: 0.0,  hi: 2.0,  is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.momentum_weight = v, get: |p| p.momentum_weight },
-        Axis { name: "min_score_factor",        lo: 0.0,  hi: 0.30, is_int: false,
+        Axis { name: "min_score_factor",        lo: 0.05, hi: 0.30, is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.min_score_factor = v, get: |p| p.min_score_factor },
         Axis { name: "back_dir_cutoff",         lo: -0.95, hi: -0.3, is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.back_dir_cutoff = v, get: |p| p.back_dir_cutoff },
         Axis { name: "min_component_factor",    lo: 0.10, hi: 1.50, is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.min_component_factor = v, get: |p| p.min_component_factor },
-        Axis { name: "pen_lift_penalty",        lo: 0.0,  hi: 200.0, is_int: false,
+        Axis { name: "pen_lift_penalty",        lo: 0.0,  hi: 25.0, is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.pen_lift_penalty = v, get: |p| p.pen_lift_penalty },
-        Axis { name: "pen_lift_reach",          lo: 0.5,  hi: 16.0, is_int: false,
+        Axis { name: "pen_lift_reach",          lo: 1.0,  hi: 6.0,  is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.pen_lift_reach = v, get: |p| p.pen_lift_reach },
         Axis { name: "output_rdp_eps",          lo: 0.0,  hi: 2.0,  is_int: false,
             set: |p, v| p.output_rdp_eps = v, get: |p| p.output_rdp_eps },