This study aimed to found out the effect of patellofemoral overlap distance by changing femur thickness and center X-ray angles in Merchant method images. Based on the femur thickness, it suggested tube angle minimizes overlap. It was conducted by Merchant method, a knee tangential view, and the image was obtained by changing the thigh thickness from 14 to 20 cm and the center ray angle from 60°, 57°, 55°. The images were measured by five researchers using a method of measuring the overlap, which was designed by them. The results showed at 60°, 57°, 55° angle, the patellofemoral overlap distance resulted in 0.47±0.66 to 20.89±0.65 cm, 2.26±0.28 to 15.73±0.62 cm, 1.39 ± 0.83 to 12.49 ± 0.37 cm. However, for 57° and 55°, no overlap in thickness under 14.5 and 14 to 15.5 didn't appear. it showed high correlation between femur thickness and overlap. The difference in the mean value of overlap in each group showed a statistically significant difference (p<0.01), all were classified as independent groups in the post-hoc test. In all images, the patellofemoral overlap distance increased as the thickness increased, and at the average thickness of Korean men and women, overlap decreased when reducing center ray. When conducting Merchant tests on Koreans, it was suggested it would be useful to use 57° angle because it minimize the effects of overlap and intrusions of tibia.