PROFILE, in architecture, the draught of a building, fortification, &c. wherein are expressed the several heights, widths, and thicknesses, such as they would appear were the building cut down perpendicularly from the roof to the foundation. Whence the profile is also called the section, sometimes orthographical section, and by Vitruvius also scitography.
Profile, in this sense, amounts to the same with elevation; and stands opposed to a plan or ischnography.