The image sticking effect in a thin-film transistor activated liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) was related to the transmittance drift caused by dc voltage applied to liquid crystal (LC) cells. Using the electrooptical property of LC, the transmittance drift was calculated based on the drift of the residual dc potential which causes the image sticking effect. The transmittance drift calculated using the experimental result of the residual potential shift agreed with the measured transmittance drift. It was concluded that this calculation method was effective in analyzing the image sticking effect of LC cells.