diff --git a/sparse_strips/vello_hybrid/shaders/sparse_strip_renderer.wgsl b/sparse_strips/vello_hybrid/shaders/sparse_strip_renderer.wgsl
index c10adcf..e22ad2d 100644
--- a/sparse_strips/vello_hybrid/shaders/sparse_strip_renderer.wgsl
+++ b/sparse_strips/vello_hybrid/shaders/sparse_strip_renderer.wgsl
@@ -91,15 +91,17 @@
     // would it be faster to do a texture lookup for every pixel?
     if x < in.dense_end {
         let y = u32(floor(in.tex_coord.y));
-        // Retrieve alpha value from the texture
-        // Calculate texture coordinates based on the fragment's x-position
-        // Since we store 4 alpha values per texel, divide x by 4 to get the texel position
+        // Retrieve alpha value from the texture. We store 16 1-byte alpha
+        // values per texel, with each color channel packing 4 alpha values.
+        // The code here assumes the strip height is 4, i.e., each color
+        // channel encodes the alpha values for a single column within a strip.
+        // Divide x by 4 to get the texel position.
         let alphas_index = x;
         let tex_dimensions = textureDimensions(alphas_texture);
         let alphas_tex_width = tex_dimensions.x;
-        // Which texel contains our alpha value
+        // Which texel contains the alpha values for this column
         let texel_index = alphas_index / 4u;
-        // Which channel (R,G,B,A) in the texel
+        // Which channel (R,G,B,A) in the texel contains the alpha values for this column
         let channel_index = alphas_index % 4u;
         // Calculate texture coordinates using bitwise operations
         // This is more efficient than using modulo and division when width is a power of 2
@@ -110,7 +112,7 @@
         // Load all 4 channels from the texture
         let rgba_values = textureLoad(alphas_texture, vec2<u32>(tex_x, tex_y), 0);
         
-        // Get the alphas from the appropriate RGBA channel based on the index
+        // Get the column's alphas from the appropriate RGBA channel based on the index
         let alphas_u32 = unpack_alphas_from_channel(rgba_values, channel_index);
         // Extract the alpha value for the current y-position from the packed u32 data
         alpha = f32((alphas_u32 >> (y * 8u)) & 0xffu) * (1.0 / 255.0);
diff --git a/sparse_strips/vello_hybrid/src/render.rs b/sparse_strips/vello_hybrid/src/render.rs
index 687bf6e..ad354f5 100644
--- a/sparse_strips/vello_hybrid/src/render.rs
+++ b/sparse_strips/vello_hybrid/src/render.rs
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@
 
                 let max_texture_dimension_2d = device.limits().max_texture_dimension_2d;
                 let alpha_len = render_data.alphas.len();
-                // 4 alpha values u32 each per texel
+                // There are 16 1-byte alpha values per texel, and 4 alpha values per `render_data.alphas`.
                 let required_alpha_height =
                     (u32::try_from(alpha_len).unwrap()).div_ceil(max_texture_dimension_2d * 4);
                 let required_alpha_size = max_texture_dimension_2d * required_alpha_height * 4;
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@
             let (alphas_texture, render_bind_group) = if needs_new_alpha_texture {
                 let max_texture_dimension_2d = device.limits().max_texture_dimension_2d;
                 let alpha_len = render_data.alphas.len();
-                // 4 alpha values u32 each per texel
+                // There are 16 1-byte alpha values per texel, and 4 alpha values per `render_data.alphas`.
                 let alpha_texture_height =
                     (u32::try_from(alpha_len).unwrap()).div_ceil(max_texture_dimension_2d * 4);
 
@@ -252,6 +252,7 @@
                     "Alpha texture height exceeds max texture dimensions"
                 );
 
+                // The alpha texture encodes 16 1-byte alpha values per texel, with 4 alpha values packed in each channel
                 let alphas_texture = device.create_texture(&wgpu::TextureDescriptor {
                     label: Some("Alpha Texture"),
                     size: wgpu::Extent3d {
@@ -318,7 +319,7 @@
             bytemuck::cast_slice(&render_data.strips),
         );
 
-        // Prepare alpha data for the texture with 4 alpha values per texel
+        // Prepare alpha data for the texture with 16 1-byte alpha values per texel (4 per channel)
         let texture_width = resources.alphas_texture.width();
         let texture_height = resources.alphas_texture.height();
         assert!(