Phase measuring deflectometry (PMD) needs the two components of the local surface gradient via a sequence of two orthogonal sinusoidal fringe patterns that have to be displayed and captured separately. A novel phase-shift technique by using the cross fringe pattern is introduced, in which a one-dimensional N-phase shift allows for the acquisition of the two orthogonal phases, with only N exposures instead of 2N exposures. Therefore, it makes PMD possible be implemented by a one- dimensional translation of the fringe pattern, instead of the common two-dimensional translation, which will be quite useful for certain applications.