A new method for studying the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) of X-ray imaging scintillators was developed. SNR was expressed in terms of the X-ray luminescence efficiency (XLE) the X-ray to emitted light conversion efficiency and the mean light photon energy. Laboratory prepared Gd2O2S:Tb, La2O2S:Tb and Y2O2S:Tb scintillator screens were tested and best results were obtained for the 80 mg/cm2 Gd2O2S:Tb screen. The method proposed allows for scintillator comparison on the basis of XLE and wavelength measurements.