An electro-photographic printer utilizing a liquid crystal material which operates as a light valve. The liquid crystal material is sandwiched between two base plates which include electrodes which define a plurality of micro-shutters. A light source illuminates one side of the liquid crystal material. A driving circuit selectively applies driving signals to the electrodes for selectively opening and closing the micro-shutters to allow light from the light source to pass therethrough. A photo-sensitive drum on the other side of the liquid crystal receives the light transmitted through the liquid crystal to form characters. The characters are transmitted to a recording paper. The liquid crystal material, which has an inverted dielectric anisotropy on opposite sides of the critical frequency, is selectively driven by selectively applying two different frequency signals to the liquid crystal.