An x-ray film is a photographic film used to generate a visual x-ray image. X-ray films are rarely used as the only radiation detector. Commonly they are used in conjunction with intensifying screens placed in the film cassette, because high resolution films have a poor sensitivity to x-rays. At direct film exposure, only a small amount of x-ray photons will be absorbed and react with the film emulsion. An intensifying screen contains scintillating materials to convert x-ray radiation into light or lows electromagnetic energies.
X-ray films provide very good spatial resolution and contrast, but need long exposures times and chemical processing.

See also Conventional Radiography and Digital Radiography.

See Conventional Radiography, Autoradiography, Computed Radiography and Digital Radiography.

An imaging plate is used in computed radiography (CR) instead of a conventional film cassette.
The imaging plate is coated with photostimulable phosphors. The phosphor layer is doped with special substances to alter the crystalline structure and physical properties. After radiation, the enhanced phosphor material absorbs and stores x-ray energy in gaps of the crystal structure, building a latent image.
Usually, the storage phosphors are stimulated with a low-energy laser to release visible light at each point of x-ray absorption. To read-out the image, the plate is inserted into a computed radiography scanner. The scanning laser beam causes the electrons to relax to lower energy levels, emitting light that is captured by a photo-multiplier tube and converted into an electrical signal. The electronic signal is then converted to digital data and can be displayed on laser-printed films, workstations, transmitted to remote systems, and stored digitally.
The CR units automatically erase the image plate after the complete scan. Phosphor imaging plates, like film, are stored in cassette format and can be re-used very often if they are handled carefully. Existing conventional x-ray equipment, from generators to x-ray tubes and examination systems, can be used with imaging plates.

The digital mammography is an electronic imaging procedure of the breast. The number of breast imaging facilities equipped with digital mammography (also called computed radiography mammogram (CRM), CR mammogram) is growing due to a number of advantages.
Digital images can be stored directly in a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and allows the printing, enhancement, magnification, or brightness and contrast manipulation for further evaluation. The sensitivity of digital mammography compared to film mammography is better in women with dense breasts, a population at higher risk for breast cancer, due to these post processing possibilities.
'The American College of Radiology's (ACR) Imaging Network found that digital mammography detected up to 28 percent more cancers than film-screen mammography in women age 50 and younger, premenopausal and perimenopausal women, and women with dense breasts, as reported in October 2005 in the New England Journal of Medicine.'

Advantages of digital mammography:
Existing mammography equipment can be converted to 'digital' operation, which allows cost savings compared to integrated digital mammography systems.

See also Breast MRI.