Techniques for updating an electrophoretic display or other integrating display are provided. A first image data representing the current optical state of the display is combined with a second image data representing the desired next optical state of the display along with a third data representing the charge history of the display to form a compact intermediate representation of the electrical drive signals required to transition the display. Such compact intermediate representations can be provided for each pixel of the display and stored in flash memory. Once determined, these representations of the drive signals can be rapidly replayed from flash memory and further processed to drive the display and affect the desired optical transition from current image to next image while correcting for DC imbalances.