Abstract: A liquid crystal cell has first and second planar, approximately parallel, spaced-apart spaces between which a liquid crystal is disposed, and a plurality of light transmissive, electrically conductive electrode pairs on opposite sides of the liquid crystal corresponding to the character regions to be displayed. The first face of the cell is exposed to ambient light. A light source is disposed adjacent to the second face of the cell to direct light through the cell toward the first face. Electrical control signals corresponding to the different characters to be displayed are generated to impress an electrical potential difference across selected combinations of the electrode pairs corresponding to different characters to be displayed, thereby deactivating the liquid crystal between such electrode pairs. In the presence of ambient light incident upon the first face of the cell, the characters are displayed as light characters on a dark background at the first face of the cell responsive to the control signals.