Abstract: A method of driving a plasma display panel uses a frame time-division multiplexing method wherein a frame is divided into a plurality of subfields and each subfield is allocated to a different sustain period. In this method, a frame is divided into two groups, and the number of subfields wherein a preliminary discharge is performed on each group is made to be the same or smaller than that of subfields wherein a preliminary discharge is not performed. Under this condition, thereby preventing the deterioration of the selective write rate due to an unequal discharge condition among cells and improving contrast by lowering background brightness of the picture.