diff --git a/utilities/identify.1 b/utilities/identify.1
index aa4214e..6147f15 100644
--- a/utilities/identify.1
+++ b/utilities/identify.1
@@ -56,6 +56,8 @@
\-version print version information
By default, the image format of `file' is determined by its magic number. To specify a particular image format, precede the filename with an image format name and a colon (i.e. ps:image) or specify the image type as the filename suffix (i.e. image.ps). Specify 'file' as '-' for standard input or output.
+.SH NOTE
+Although some options appear to modify the file to be identified, the identify command is strictly \fBread only\fP. For instance, the crop option crops the in-memory image and then describes the result.
.SH SEE ALSO
ImageMagick(1)