A monolithic light guiding and dispersing plate is provided in a backlighted display panel for receiving input light from one or more edge sources and for guiding the received light throughout the plate for substantially uniform reflection upwardly and substantially uniform dispersal toward an image forming plane located above the light guiding and dispersing plate. In one embodiment, the light guiding and dispersing plate has a light receiving surface upon which the light generated by an edge light source is incident, a top major surface which is adjacent to the light receiving surface and on which a plurality of first protrusions are formed and elongated in a first direction, wherein the first protrusions have cross-sections in the shapes of partial ellipses. The plate further has a bottom major surface in which light reflecting recesses are defined to reflect light upwardly towards the top major surface.