This Technical Information Paper is the result of several years work by a joint industry task group. The task groups efforts were focused on refining a paper and paperboard roll numbering system, commonly known as the TAPPI Roll Number, which was nitially developed for the North American paper industry in the full of 1967 and then expanded in the fall of 1988 with the creation of a TAPPI Technical Information Paper (TIP 1004- 1). This Technical Information Paper applies to paper and paperboard rolls manufactured in the United States, Canada and Mexico and is intended to provide guidelines to the manufacturers of paper and paperboard rolls for the identification of such paper and paperboard rolls. This numbering system, now being referred to as the North American roll identifier, is based upon the previous TAPPI roll number recommendations except that the various options which were available have now been consolidated into a single numbering system with several added or modified fields which enhance the usefulness of this new number system.