Contrast agents based on the lanthanide elements gadolinium and holmium have recently been developed for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Because of the increased atomic number of these elements relative to iodine, these new compounds, used as x‐ray contrast agents, may yield higher radiographic contrast, and hence improved x‐ray image quality, relative to conventional iodinated compounds, for clinically useful x‐ray spectra. This possibility has been investigated, in independent experimental and theoretical studies, for two x‐ray imaging systems: a digital radiographic system, using an x‐ray image intensifier (XRII) and charge‐coupled device (CCD) detector; and a conventional screen/film system, using a Lanex Regular screen. Iodine, gadolinium, and holmium contrast agents were investigated over a wide range of concentration‐thickness products (0.1–0.6 M cm) and diagnostic x‐ray spectra (60–120 kVp). A simple theoretical model of x‐ray detector response predicts the experimental radiographic contrast measurements with a mean absolute error of 8.0% for the XRII/CCD system and 5.9% for the screen/film system, and shows that the radiographic contrast for these two systems is representative of all XRII and screen/film systems. An index of image quality is defined, and its dependence on radiographic contrast, x‐ray fluence per unit dose, and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) is shown. Theoretical values of the index, predicted by our model, are then used to compare the performance of the three contrast agents for the two systems investigated. In general, iodine performance decreases steadily with increasing kVp, gadolinium performance has a broad maximum near 85 kVp, and gadolinium outperforms holmium. Gadolinium outperforms iodine for spectra above (and vice versa below) about 72 kVp, depending slightly on spectrum filtration, object thickness, and detector type. Thus, raising the kVp to shorten exposure times or reduce x‐ray tube heat loading results in a loss of image quality with iodine, but not with gadolinium. Similarly, beam‐hardening artifacts in performing video densitometry with iodine would be reduced with gadolinium. Gadolinium‐based contrast agents are thus shown to offer several practical advantages over conventional iodinated contrast agents.