Five-phase voltage source inverter drives have recently been applied to various industrial applications for variable speed motor drives. Both space-vector PWM (SVPWM) and discontinuous PWM (DPWM) are commonly used modulators. Under the three-phase setting, it is well known that SVPWM is preferred for small modulation indices whereas DPWM is better for large modulation indices. However little detailed discussions on five-phase setting are reported. This paper developed a method to select either SVPWM or DPWM under different reference amplitudes and angles. Firstly, a generalized expression of PWM harmonic flux which is proportional to current distortion is derived. Secondly, by selecting the modulator that corresponds to minimum rms harmonic flux for every carrier period, optimal injection pulse-width modulation (OIPWM) is constructed.