Various methods of measuring corneal topography are described. The advantages and disadvantages of the principles used in the measurement of corneal shape by the various techniques are discussed. The corneal surface may be described in a number of ways; some researchers have used conic sections while others have used more complex polynomial expressions. Computer algorithms have also been developed to calculate quantitative measures of corneal topography to augment the information obtained from topographical maps. These descriptors are discussed in this article.