Before I answer, let me correct the question a bit. I think you mean source side penetrameter and film side penetrameter. In industrial radiography, just like normal photography, it is essential to have perfect focus (of sorts) so that the images recorded have the ability to show us details of requried sensitivity. To understand this, let us try an experiment. turn on the torch in your mobile phone. The LED in the phone has a particular size doesn’t it? Point the light from above so that all the light falls on your table (for instance). Hold a coin midway between the phone and table. You should see a shadow on your desk, Notice that the shadow is larger than the coin. Now, move the coin towards the table. You will notice that the shadow of the coin not only becomes smaller but also increases in sharpness. From the experiment, one can now know that as we move closer to the source of light, the image (or shadow) becomes larger and blurred. As we move closer to the imaging medium (in our case, the table on which light was projected), the image becomes sharper and closer to actual size. The same is true for radiography too. It is the blur (unsharpness, technically speaking) which we are trying to control by gauging using penetrameters.aR Geometric unsharpness (as shown in the image above) is the uncertainity in size/shape caused by the penumbra formed by a light/X-ray soutce of finite length and it is maximum on the plane on the object that is closer to the source than that on the film side. So, codes like ASME give a guideline as to which 1Q1 (Image quality indicator/penetrameter) has to be used for different thicknesses. ‘The film side penetrameter will obviously be seen better as it is closer to the film or imaging plate. However, film side penetrameter must be used only when source side placement of penetrameter isn’t an option. The logic is like this: If the worst plane (1.e.; source side plane ) is able to achieve the said sensitivity, one can be assured that the planes closer to the film will surely be imaged properly.