Abstract: A light modulating device such as a liquid crystal display or polarizer is fabricated using optically biaxial plastic material as a substrate. The plastic biaxial material replaces the glass substrate of the LCD, or the cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) of the polarizer. The biaxial material is a type of stretched plastic, which is more flexible than glass, and much thinner in typical display applications. Typical plastic biaxial materials are chemically stable with liquid crystals and much more stable than isotropic plastics (CAB). The material is optically anistropic, but optical axes of the material are chosen to be outside the field of view over which the device will be observed.