A process for laying out a maximum number of cigar wrappers in a leaf or half-leaf of tobacco, the position of each wrapper being located within the leaf or half-leaf by two series of variables which are, on the one hand, the abscissa or ordinate from the center of the wrapper plotted with respect to the main direction of the leaf and to one end of the leaf, and on the other hand, the angle that the main direction of the wrapper makes with the main direction of the leaf, said process comprising the steps of laying out a first wrapper so that it is tangential to the contour of the half-leaf and one of its said variables is maximum or minimum, and then successively laying out other wrappers, each of them being always tangential to the last laid out wrapper and to the contour of the half-leaf or to another laid out wrapper and having one of its said variables maximum or minimum.