Nonlinearity of the film characteristics is a major problem in optical spectrum analysis with density modulation. The problem of nonlinearity can be avoided by using area modulation due to its binary recording format. The feasibility of using area modulation for wide-band signal analysis [C. E. Thomas, Appl. Opt. 5, 1782 (1966)] is demonstrated. The results obtained with area modulation is shown to be similar to that of density modulation. However, area modulation requires a larger system space. Therefore, the available space-bandwidth product for a given system size is smaller with area modulation than with density modulation.