Systems, methods and apparatus for image formation improve power efficiency of display devices by displaying low resolution composite color subfields. In some implementations, a display controller receives data indicative of a plurality of pixel values included in an image frame and derives a plurality of initial component color subfields. The display controller then derives a composite color subfield including a plurality of common composite color intensity values assigned to respective pixel blocks. Each pixel block is associated with a plurality of pixels. The display controller derives a plurality of updated component color subfields based on the initial component color subfields and the composite color subfield.