A tone display method for displaying a tone of an image in a display system which divides a time width of a field of an image signal into a plurality of weighted subfields and controls operation of the subfields. The tone display method includes the steps of coding the image signal in the plurality of weighted subfields the plurality of weighted subfields including a plurality of most significant subfields having respective weights which are substantially equal to one another, and a plurality of less significant subfields having respective weights each of which is less than each of the weights of the most significant subfields, a sum of all of the weights of the less significant subfields being greater than each of the weights of the most significant subfields, the coding being chosen from a plurality of codings all representing substantially a same tone level when a tone level of the image signal is not less than each of the weights of the most significant subfields, and displaying the image signal coded with the chosen coding.