During the 1950's, when the concept of producing cigarettes with filters was realized commercially, a need developed for specialized papers to meet the specialized demands of a new and highly sophisticated form of manufacturing. The filtering medium required a wrapping material of its own (the plug wrap) in order to form the filter plug. Similarly, a special sheet was needed (the tipping paper) to cover the filter plug and to attach it to the cigarette rod. In the late 1960's, dilution of the smoke through the filter became a commercial reality when cigarette manufacturers began wrapping the filter medium in a permeable plug wrap and using a perforated tipping paper. This advent of low delivery cigarettes required major modifications both to the paper components and to the cigarette manufacturing machinery, including the filter plug makers and the tipping units. Furthermore, continual demands were placed on the machinery as well as on the components to run at ever higher speeds. Since this sophisticated manufacturing process is a system - comprised of raw materials, machinery and people - continual reassessment of the interaction amongst the variables was necessary in order to optimize the quality of the product and the efficiency of the process. In this presentation, the authors will review further the historical development of filter cigarettes, describe in detail the nature of the various kinds of papers used in their manufacture, and highlight the physics, chemistry and technology upon which their design is predicated.