PURPOSE: To obtain thermal recording paper having good pencil writing properties and reduced in the blurr to aqueous ink by together using silica and light calcium carbonate respectively having specific particle sizes as the pigments added to a protective layer.

CONSTITUTION: A thermal recording material is formed by providing a thermal recording layer utilizing the color forming reaction of an electron donating colorless dye precursor and an electron acceptive compound on a paper support and further providing a protective layer thereon. As the pigments added to the protective layer, silica having a mean particle size of 2.0 - 5.0 μm and light calcium carbonate having a mean particle size of 0.5 - 2.0 μm are together used. Further, starch particles are contained in the protective layer in an amount of 5.0 - 50.0 % by wt. of the total wt. of the protective layer. As the electron donating colorless dye precursor of the thermal color forming layer, a triphenylmethanephthalide compound or a fluorane compound is used. As the electron acceptive compound, a phenol derivative or a metal salt of aromatic carboxylic acid is used.