Methods and apparatus for reduced bandwidth pulse width modulation are disclosed. A system includes a digital controller circuit coupled to a data interface, the digital controller circuit configured to receive image data for display and further configured to encode line data for transmission to a spatial light modulator using a data compression scheme; and the spatial light modulator coupled to the data interface and configured to receive encoded data and to decode the encoded data to produce unencoded data corresponding to pixel data for display on an array of pixel elements in the spatial light modulator; wherein data transmitted from the digital controller circuit to the spatial light modulator further comprises encoded data that is formed from bit planes using a data compression scheme to form partial lines of data. Additional methods and apparatus are disclosed.