Zig-Zag Orange Vs. Zig-Zag White | Rolling Paper Comparison

Rolling papers carry no nicotine themselves, but they exist to smoke tobacco. SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy.

Zig-Zag’s orange and white booklets are the two rolling papers most stores stock, and the difference between them is size. French Orange is a 1 1/4 paper, 78 by 44 mm; Original White is a single wide, 70 by 38 mm. Both are made from flax fiber with a gum arabic seal, 32 leaves to a booklet, in Perpignan, France, by Republic Technologies, and sold in the US by Turning Point Brands under a license that runs to 2032. This page sets the two side by side from the manufacturer’s own specifications, lists the rest of the current paper range, and covers the brand’s 147-year history, who owns what, and how rolling papers are regulated and taxed in the US.

Last verified September 11, 2026 against zigzag.com product pages, Turning Point Brands’ 2025 annual report and 2026 quarterly results, Republic Technologies’ company history, USPTO records, FDA pages and the US Code. Sources at the end.

Side by side

	French Orange (orange pack)	Original White (white pack)
Product name	Zig-Zag French Orange Rolling Papers 1 1/4	Zig-Zag Original White Papers
Size class	1 1/4	Single wide
Dimensions	78 x 44 mm	70 x 38 mm
Material	Natural flax plant fibers	Natural flax plant fibers
Gum	100% natural gum arabic	100% natural gum arabic
Leaves per booklet	32	32
Booklets per carton	24	24
Made in	Perpignan, France	Perpignan, France
Federal excise tax	3.15 cents per 50 papers	3.15 cents per 50 papers

Zig-Zag lists the same fiber and the same gum for both. The orange booklet is a larger sheet, 8 mm longer and 6 mm wider, which is the whole of the specification difference; paper weight and burn rate are not published for either, so claims about one being thicker or slower-burning are not the manufacturer’s. “Unbleached” is a separate Zig-Zag product, not a description of the orange paper.

The rest of the range

Every paper on zigzag.com in September 2026, from the company’s product pages. Booklet colors are format codes.

Product as listed	Size	Material	Leaves
French Orange Rolling Papers 1 1/4	78 x 44 mm	Flax	32
Original White Papers	70 x 38 mm	Flax	32
Kutcorners Slow Burning Papers (green pack)	70 x 38 mm	Flax	32
Ultra Thin Papers 1 1/4 (blue pack)	78 x 44 mm	Flax	32
Ultra Thin Papers 1 1/2	78 x 69 mm	Flax	32
King Size Rolling Papers 100mm	100 x 53 mm	Flax	32
Organic Hemp Papers 1 1/4	1 1/4	Hemp fiber from organic farms, unbleached	50
King Slim Organic Hemp Papers	King slim	Hemp fiber, unbleached	32
Unbleached Papers 1 1/4	1 1/4	Unbleached fiber blend	50
Unbleached King Slim Papers 110 mm	110 mm	Unbleached fiber blend	32

The company also sells pre-rolled cones (Ultra Thin, Unbleached and Organic Hemp, in 70 mm, 1 1/4 and king size), rolling machines in 70, 78 and 100 mm, rolling tips, king-size and 100 mm filter tubes in 200-count boxes, and hemp wraps it describes as tobacco-free. Zig-Zag tobacco wraps and cigarillos are a separate line sold through zigzagwraps.com, made in the Dominican Republic, and carry the nicotine warning. Zig-Zag is not the only brand Republic makes in Perpignan: OCB, JOB and TOP come from the same plant.

Who makes Zig-Zag

Fact	Zig-Zag
Brand owner	Republic Technologies International, Perpignan, France, part of the Republic Group (Don Levin family; Republic Brands, Glenview, Illinois); US trademark 0610530 assigned to Republic in November 2020
US and Canada marketer	Turning Point Brands (NYSE: TPB), Louisville, Kentucky, through North Atlantic Operating Company, under exclusive distribution and license agreements first signed in 1992, renewed in November 2012 for 20 years and due for renewal in November 2032
Made in	Republic Technologies France, Perpignan, which makes over 1 billion booklets a year
US market position	“The #1 premium and #1 overall rolling paper in the U.S. with approximately 33% total market share” (Turning Point Brands 2025 annual report, MSAi data); about 35% of cigar wraps
US segment sales	$178.5 million in 2025, down 7.2%; $36.7 million in Q1 2026 and $35.4 million in Q2 2026, both down on the year on lower paper and wrap shipments
Founded	1879, by Maurice and Jacques Braunstein, near Paris (company history; Wikipedia gives 1855)

History

The Braunstein brothers built a paper mill at Gassicourt, west of Paris, in 1879 and in 1894 invented the interleaving process by which pulling one leaf from a booklet feeds out the next; the alternating fold gave the brand its name. The company’s own lore adds a soldier: at the 1855 siege of Sevastopol, a French Zouave whose clay pipe had been shattered rolled his tobacco in paper torn from a gunpowder sack, and a drawing of a smoking Zouave has been on the booklet since the early packaging. The company says the papers won a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition and trademarked “Zig-Zag” in 1906; the US trademark claims first use in August 1901 and was registered in 1955. Production moved to Thonon-les-Bains in 1919. After Jacques Braunstein’s death the brand passed to Bollore’s JOB paper business in 1956.

The US business has had its own path. UST, the smokeless tobacco company, distributed Zig-Zag in America from 1938. In 1992 North Atlantic Trading Company was formed to buy those rights for $39 million and signed exclusive US and Canada distribution agreements with Bollore; National Tobacco of Louisville bought North Atlantic in 1997, which is why Turning Point Brands dates its Zig-Zag rights to that year. Republic, the Chicago-area rolling-paper company, bought Bollore’s paper business in 2000, but the US trademark and the distribution agreements stayed with Bollore until November 2020, when both were assigned to Republic Technologies International. Turning Point added cigar wraps in 2009, organic hemp papers in 2018, cones in 2019 and hemp and natural-leaf wraps in 2021, and in 2018 won a $3.1 million default judgment against 14 online sellers of counterfeit Zig-Zag as part of a “Zero Tolerance” campaign that also produced police raids on a counterfeiting network in China. Turning Point’s filings describe the paper business as increasingly tied to the legal cannabis market: 24 states and the District of Columbia had legalized adult use by the end of 2025, and the company reports growing sales through head shops, dispensaries and business-to-business e-commerce.

Regulation and tax

The FDA states that it regulates tobacco rolling paper along with roll-your-own tobacco under the Tobacco Control Act, as a component of a tobacco product. The federal minimum age of 21, in force since December 20, 2019, applies to retail sale of any tobacco product, and FDA retail guidance bars free samples of roll-your-own tobacco “including any of their components or parts.” Some states go further in writing: New York requires stores to post that sale of rolling papers or smoking paraphernalia to anyone under 21 is prohibited, and Virginia’s under-21 law names “blunt or hemp wraps” among covered items. Federal excise tax on cigarette papers is 3.15 cents per 50 papers and on cigarette tubes 6.30 cents per 50, rates set by the 2009 CHIPRA law (26 U.S.C. 5701); Arkansas adds a state excise of 25 cents per package of about 32 sheets, and Alabama counties tax gummed papers sold separately. No FDA warning letter names Zig-Zag, Turning Point’s paper business or Republic; Turning Point’s two FDA warning letters, in 2023 and 2024, concerned its online vape retail businesses. The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement covers cigarettes and does not apply to papers.

FAQs

What is the difference between Zig-Zag Orange and Zig-Zag White? Size. French Orange is a 1 1/4 paper (78 x 44 mm); Original White is a single wide (70 x 38 mm). Zig-Zag lists the same flax fiber and gum arabic for both.

Is Zig-Zag Orange unbleached? No. Zig-Zag Unbleached is a separate product, in 1 1/4 and king slim, alongside Organic Hemp.

What do the other colors mean? Blue is Ultra Thin, green is Kutcorners (cut corners), and the white and orange packs are the standard flax papers in single wide and 1 1/4.

Who makes Zig-Zag? Republic Technologies in Perpignan, France, owns the brand and makes the papers; Turning Point Brands of Louisville sells them in the US and Canada under license.

Are rolling papers a tobacco product? The FDA regulates rolling paper as a component of roll-your-own tobacco, the federal minimum purchase age is 21, and papers carry a federal excise tax of 3.15 cents per 50. They contain no tobacco or nicotine themselves.

Are Zig-Zag wraps the same thing? No. Zig-Zag Hemp Wraps are described by the company as tobacco-free; Zig-Zag tobacco wraps and cigarillos, sold separately, are tobacco products with the nicotine warning.

Sources

• Zig-Zag, French Orange Rolling Papers 1 1/4, Original White Papers and the papers collection; Zig-Zag, Explore Zig-Zag history
• Turning Point Brands, Form 10-K for 2025; fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results, March 2, 2026; first-quarter 2026 results, May 7, 2026; second-quarter 2026 results, August 4, 2026; Zero Tolerance campaign judgment, July 2, 2018
• Republic Technologies, Our story, Products and Manufacturing sites; USPTO record for Reg. No. 0610530; Encyclopedia.com, North Atlantic Trading Company; Republic Tobacco v. North Atlantic Trading, 381 F.3d 717 (7th Cir. 2004)
• FDA, Roll-your-own tobacco, Tobacco 21 and Selling tobacco products in retail stores; 21 CFR 1140.3; 26 U.S.C. 5701; New York Public Health Law 1399-cc; Virginia Code 18.2-371.2; Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration tobacco statutes