Color characteristics of the E- and O-modes in the fringe-field switching mode using the liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy have been investigated. According to calculated and measured results for color shift up to 70 of polar angle in all directions, a cell with E-mode shows smaller color shift with varying viewing direction than a cell with O-mode in all grey levels, for instance, the color shift in a white state is much smaller in the E-mode (Delta xy = 0.1819) than in the O-mode (Delta xy = 0.0798). However, the color shift of the white state is strongly suppressed for both E-mode (Delta xy = 0.0199) and O-mode (Delta xy = 0.0093) with a dual domain structure. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.