The flow characteristics of a swirl injector were investigated with the variation of the flow condition and geometric dimensions, such as orifice length for considering the viscous effect and tangential entry port area for considering the swirl intensity. The liquid film thickness strongly influencing on the formed drop size of the spray was measured using a new technique. The film thickness measurement technique proposed here, used the attenuation of fluorescence signal near the injector exit. The breakup length that is important for the flame location as well as the spray cone angle which influences on the ignition performance was measured using a backlit stroboscopic photography technique. From the experimental results, it is found that an increase in injection pressure decreased the film thickness and breakup length, and also enlarged the spray cone angle. A decrease in orifice length and tangential entry port area has a similar tendency of thinner film thickness, shorter breakup length and larger spray cone angle. In the present study, we proposed empirical models of the flow characteristics of the swirl injectors.