A diffractive display element comprising - a waveguide body, - an in-coupling region for diffractively coupling light into the waveguide body, - an out-coupling region for diffractively coupling light out of the waveguide body, said light being propagated from said in-coupling region to the out-coupling region along a primary route, being the route the light which is not strayed along the route follows in the waveguide body from the in-coupling region to the out-coupling region and further out of the waveguide body, wherein the element further comprises at least one grating mirror (53A-D) of which at least 50% is located outside a zone laterally spanned by the in-coupling and out-coupling regions, and, optionally, an exit pupil expander region, said zone comprising said primary route, said at least one grating mirror being configured for diffractively mirroring light strayed from said primary route, being light otherwise lost due to diffraction in one or more diffraction orders away from the primary route or due to travelling of a light ray across a grating region on the primary route without interacting therewith, back to said primary route, - the grating mirror is located behind the in-coupling region, as seen from the primary route, such as to capture light strayed due to diffraction in the in-coupling region away from the primary route, and reflect it back towards the primary route and/or - the out-coupling region comprises a combined out-coupling and exit pupil expansion grating, and there are grating mirrors provided on at least two sides of the out-coupling region, and/or - the element further comprising an exit pupil expander region on said primary route, and there are two grating mirrors (53C, 53D) located behind the exit pupil expander region, as seen from the primary route, on two different sides of the exit pupil expander region. - a waveguide body, - an in-coupling region for diffractively coupling light into the waveguide body, - an out-coupling region for diffractively coupling light out of the waveguide body, said light being propagated from said in-coupling region to the out-coupling region along a primary route, being the route the light which is not strayed along the route follows in the waveguide body from the in-coupling region to the out-coupling region and further out of the waveguide body, wherein the element further comprises at least one grating mirror (53A-D) of which at least 50% is located outside a zone laterally spanned by the in-coupling and out-coupling regions, and, optionally, an exit pupil expander region, said zone comprising said primary route, said at least one grating mirror being configured for diffractively mirroring light strayed from said primary route, being light otherwise lost due to diffraction in one or more diffraction orders away from the primary route or due to travelling of a light ray across a grating region on the primary route without interacting therewith, back to said primary route, - the grating mirror is located behind the in-coupling region, as seen from the primary route, such as to capture light strayed due to diffraction in the in-coupling region away from the primary route, and reflect it back towards the primary route and/or - the out-coupling region comprises a combined out-coupling and exit pupil expansion grating, and there are grating mirrors provided on at least two sides of the out-coupling region, and/or - the element further comprising an exit pupil expander region on said primary route, and there are two grating mirrors (53C, 53D) located behind the exit pupil expander region, as seen from the primary route, on two different sides of the exit pupil expander region. - the grating mirror is located behind the in-coupling region, as seen from the primary route, such as to capture light strayed due to diffraction in the in-coupling region away from the primary route, and reflect it back towards the primary route and/or - the out-coupling region comprises a combined out-coupling and exit pupil expansion grating, and there are grating mirrors provided on at least two sides of the out-coupling region, and/or - the element further comprising an exit pupil expander region on said primary route, and there are two grating mirrors (53C, 53D) located behind the exit pupil expander region, as seen from the primary route, on two different sides of the exit pupil expander region.