Electron trajectories and light emitting images for the electron emission from a single starlike thin-film field emitter and a 200-mu m-sq field emitter array have been studied. In the early stale of electron emission from the starlike field emitters, a unique light emitting image appeared on a phosphor screen. The image consisted of an upper hornlike and a lower mountainlike pattern, their geometrical configuration roughly agreeing with the simulation results of electron trajectories using a finite integral equation method code. From the observation of the light emitting images for the starlike field emitters, we found that the images of the starlike field emitters resulted from overlapping electron beams emitted from the four apices of each field emitter. The emitted electrons had an electron emitting angle of 40 degrees and a horizontal electron spread angle of 30 degrees-40 degrees at an anode voltage of 340 V. An increase in the anode voltage to 680 V reduced the vertical electron emitting angle to 30 degrees.