A new method of absolute phase evaluation for three-dimensional (3D) profile measurement using fringe projection is presented, which combines the gray code and the phase shift technique. Two kinds of fringe patterns are projected onto the object surface respectively, one is sinusoidal intensity distribution used for phase demodulation and the other is gray code fringe pattern for unwrapping. These images are acquired by camera and stored into computer. The absolute phase is obtained by analyzing these images. The validity of this method is verified experimentally. The method is superior to other phase unwrapping methods.