AbstractThe main aim of our work is to present a theory of light propagation through a liquid crystal display worked out in our University. This theory takes into account real conditions of a display operation such as temporal coherence of light source, interference phenomena, spectral characteristics of refractive coefficients of individual layers and their complex forms, real directions of ordinary and extraordinary wavevectors into each layer, real directions of light polarization into anisotropic or dichroic layers etc. Therefore, our theory can be used to determine optical parameters of a liquid crystal display operating under real or at least quasi-real conditions. Contrary to other theories (e.g., Beremann or geometric optics approximation), this model is characterized by a small number of simplifications. Thus, it can be used to analyse a display operating in special conditions, such as military or out-door applications. In these cases, very high optical parameters (luminance and contrast ratio) aare needed. Application of even small simplifications conducts to significant changes of calculated parameters.