Abstract: A field effect liquid crystal display is disclosed wherein an composite alternating voltage is successively produced across a matrix of pixels formed by crossed arrays of row and column electrodes of the display. The composite alternating voltage consists of a row driving alternating voltage component and a column driving alternating component voltage. The phases of the row and column alternating voltage components are relatively phased so as to produce the composite alternating voltage across the individual pixels. The column alternating voltage component includes a gray scale component having an (root mean square) RMS value variable in accordance with the gray scale of the image to be displayed on the liquid crystal display. Two systems are disclosed for deriving the composite RMS voltage having the gray scale component.