CR and DR .

The old way of taking a x-ray is using a darkroom but now there's Computed Radiography and Direct Radiography. Computed Radiography is where a phosphor plate is used to capture image and not film or cassette and then a laser reader scans image to be able to view it more clearly. Direct Radiography is where the image is directly made into an electrical signal and then it's put into the computer and ready to be read. Although DR is very expensive, wired directly, and limited movement for this reason CR is more common. These two forms of taking an x-ray are becoming extremely helpful in recent years helping radiologist getting images quicker. Also these ways help reduce the amount of radiation.