An electrophoretic display device comprises an electrophoretic display panel having drive electrodes, a common electrode, and electrophoretic particles inbetween. The panel can update the display color of each display unit correlated to a particular drive electrode according to a voltage applied between that drive electrode and the common electrode. A drive control unit applies such voltage and also has components that determine for each display unit the current display color and selectively apply specifically configured first, second and third pulses between the common and drive electrodes of display units to effect color change.