Processing of the liquid crystal (LC) aligning substrates by a flux of atmospheric plasma provides controllable pretilt angle and anchoring energy, but rather poor alignment uniformity on macroscopic scale. The result is however radically improved by combination of this process with rubbing. In this case, high-quality tilted alignment is realized with a pretilt angle continuously tuned in the range 0-90 degrees. The corresponding cells show excellent electro-optic performance. This makes combination of atmospheric plasma and rubbing processes rather attractive for industry, especially for those cases where the LC pretilt angle and anchoring energy should be patterned or continuously tuned. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.