Characteristics of two favorite injection tools for gasoline direct injection application were compared. An air-assisted fuel injector (AAFI) and a high-pressure swirl injector (HPSI) were designed and fabricated for prototype development, and the characterization strategies and processes for both injection tool have been arranged in parallel. Characterization works were carried out mainly through measurements, and in some cases, computational fluid dynamic analysis was utilized. In this paper, overall characteristics defined as flow rate, spray pattern, penetration, internal spray structure and drop size distribution, was discussed. The AAFI was found to be advantageous in flexibility of fuel flow rate, and the HPSI in stability and precision. Spray shape factor was introduced to describe the development of intermittent sprays from both injectors. Axial penetration appeared to be almost linear in the case of the AAFI while its speed continuously decreased with time in the HPSI.