Methods and apparatus are provided for displaying an image to a viewer, for example in a head-mounted display (HMD) application, with reduced visual artifacts such as screen-door effect. A phase optic is disposed between the HMD lens and the user's eye. The optic changes the distribution of the light so the user's eye cannot focus the light better than the sub-pixel distance. The user can therefore not resolve the sub-pixel structure, and the structure therefore appears as one larger pixel, mitigating the screen-door effect. A significant reduction in screen-door effect visual artifacts arising from the periodic structure of the display panel may therefore be obtained.
