diff --git a/src/ui/statusbar/mod.rs b/src/ui/statusbar/mod.rs
index a7de1029f..6a3a9630b 100644
--- a/src/ui/statusbar/mod.rs
+++ b/src/ui/statusbar/mod.rs
@@ -28,6 +28,12 @@ use crate::ui::statusbar::status_menu::Entry as StatusMenuEntry;
 use crate::ui::wrap_bar::WrapBar;
 use crate::t;
 
+/// Height of one status-bar row. Matches the drawing-tab strip above it so the
+/// three horizontal strips — tabs, status bar, command line — line up, and it
+/// is also the reach a status-bar menu keeps around itself (see
+/// `status_menu::menu_bar`).
+pub const ROW_HEIGHT: f32 = 30.0;
+
 const ST_ANNO_VISIBILITY: &[u8] = include_bytes!("../../../assets/icons/scale_list.svg");
 const ST_ANNO_AUTO_ADD: &[u8] = include_bytes!("../../../assets/icons/add_scale.svg");
 const ST_VP_SCALE_SYNC: &[u8] = include_bytes!("../../../assets/icons/sync.svg");
@@ -528,7 +534,7 @@ impl StatusBar {
             .vertical_spacing(0.0);
 
         let wrap = WrapBar::new(left_area.into(), right_status.into())
-            .min_row_h(30.0)
+            .min_row_h(ROW_HEIGHT)
             .justify_end(true);
 
         container(wrap)
diff --git a/src/ui/statusbar/status_menu.rs b/src/ui/statusbar/status_menu.rs
index 66b96d1c7..a46b07ee9 100644
--- a/src/ui/statusbar/status_menu.rs
+++ b/src/ui/statusbar/status_menu.rs
@@ -48,7 +48,13 @@ pub fn menu_bar<'a>(
         .close_on_background_click(true);
 
     MenuBar::new(vec![Item::with_menu(root, menu)])
-        .safe_bounds_margin(0.0)
+        // The cursor may leave the menu by this much before it closes. At zero
+        // the safe area was the menu's own rectangle, and these menus hang off
+        // a pill barely wider than its icon: reaching for a row's text meant
+        // moving up and across at once, and the diagonal left the rectangle
+        // between the pill and the menu. One row of the bar the menu belongs to
+        // is enough room for that diagonal, in every direction. (#682)
+        .safe_bounds_margin(super::ROW_HEIGHT)
         .close_on_background_click_global(true)
         .draw_path(DrawPath::Backdrop)
         .style(|theme: &Theme, _| {