Abstract: A display system that encodes shading in an image to be displayed. The system comprises a video display having a plurality of pixel elements each being mapped to a respective bit within a memory, and a controller for energizing, at a predetermined frame refresh rate, the pixel elements according to an image bitmap stored in the memory. An energizing pattern of successive frames, which defines the shading by indicating for each frame whether the pixels of the display generally are to be on or off, is utilized by a processor to generate, at the refresh rate, an encoded bitmap by manipulating bits of a source bitmap as a function of the energizing pattern for each of the frames, and storing the encoded bitmap in the memory.