Profilometer
（重定向自Profilometry）
![A contact profilometer at LAAS technological facility in Toulouse, France.](/Images/godic/202502/04/Contact_profilometer_at_LAAS_04195056.jpg")
![Original 1940s Taylor-Hobson Talysurf surface profile measuring machine](/Images/godic/202502/04/Talysurf,_Snibston5056.jpg")
Profilometer is a measuring instrument used to measure a surface's profile, in order to quantify its roughness.
While the historical notion of a profilometer was a device similar to a phonograph that measures a surface as the surface is moved relative to the contact profilometer's stylus, this notion is changing with the emergence of numerous non-contact profilometery techniques.