1. A laser projection system comprising: a visible light source comprising at least one laser; a system controller programmed to generate a scanned laser image by operating the laser for optical emission of encoded image data and controlling a scanning element to scan an output beam of the visible light source across a plurality of image pixels; a first lens configured to focus the scanned output beam to form an intermediate laser image; a second lens configured to project the intermediate laser image onto a projection surface; a periodic phase mask positioned closer to the intermediate laser image than to the first and second lenses and comprising a period that is approximately equal to or greater than a beam waist diameter of the scanned output beam at the intermediate laser image, wherein the periodic phase mask generates a plurality of orders of diffraction; and a pupil phase mask comprising a plurality of pixels positioned in an optical path that is after the second lens and configured to modify a relative phase of the orders of diffraction generated by the periodic phase mask, wherein projection of the scanned output beam jumps progressively from pixel to pixel, thereby reducing speckle contrast in a scanned laser image that is projected onto the projection surface.