Color holographic display is an important aim of holographic video display technology. In this paper， an overview of the issues about the methods and system design of color holographic display based on spatial light modulator (SLM) is presented. Firstly, the basic principles that three monochromatic holographic images are combined into a color image are introduced. The methods of generating holograms are analyzed and the comparison of three kinds of holograms including optical holograms, digital holograms, and computergenerated holograms (CGHs) is achieved. Secondly, the choice of SLM to design a color holographic display system and the phase modulation characteristics for multi- wavelength illumination are discussed. It is feasible to employ either red, green, and blue (RGB) lasers or light- emitting diodes (LEDs) as illumination source in practice system. Then, the configurations of color holographic display system by use of different methods including time division multiplexing, space division multiplexing, spatial division, and spatial multiplexing are described, and it is pointed out that the color holographic reconstructions are corrupted by effects arising from the discrete nature of SLM and the chromatics. Finally, the prospective development of color holographic display technology is given.