diff --git a/ci/release/template/man/d2.1 b/ci/release/template/man/d2.1
index 1bb889994..d1ebc5939 100644
--- a/ci/release/template/man/d2.1
+++ b/ci/release/template/man/d2.1
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ Renders the diagram to look like it was sketched by hand
 Center the SVG in the containing viewbox, such as your browser screen
 .Ns .
 .It Fl -scale Ar -1
-Set a fixed render scale (e.g. 0.5 to halve rendered size). If none provided, SVG will fit to screen
+Scale the output. E.g., 0.5 to halve the default size. Default -1 means that SVG's will fit to screen and all others will use their default render size. Setting to 1 turns off SVG fitting to screen
 .Ns .
 .It Fl -font-regular
 Path to .ttf file to use for the regular font. If none provided, Source Sans Pro Regular is used
diff --git a/d2cli/main.go b/d2cli/main.go
index d36e03c4a..3d4fa6054 100644
--- a/d2cli/main.go
+++ b/d2cli/main.go
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ func Run(ctx context.Context, ms *xmain.State) (err error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	scaleFlag, err := ms.Opts.Float64("SCALE", "scale", "", -1, "set a fixed render scale (e.g. 0.5 to halve rendered size). If none provided, SVG will fit to screen.")
+	scaleFlag, err := ms.Opts.Float64("SCALE", "scale", "", -1, "scale the output. E.g., 0.5 to halve the default size. Default -1 means that SVG's will fit to screen and all others will use their default render size. Setting to 1 turns off SVG fitting to screen.")
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}