Agar has widely been used as medical aids and food ingredients due to its pecular physicochemical and rheological properties. In this paper, the effects of spray drying and extrusion drying on functional properties of agar were investigated to clarify the sol-gel transition mechanism at low temperature and microstructure of agar gel by measuring phase transition by differential scanning calorimetery, structural differences by light microscope and scanning electron microscope observation. The lowest endothermic onset(To), peak(Tp), conclusion(Tc) temperature and enthalpy($Delta$H) using differential scanning calorimetery were showed in extrusion-dried agar wic were checked in 41.30, 61.72, 80.50 and 0.73cal/g. In cases of unmodified and spray-dried, the values were 81.20, 95.51, 112.14 and 3.22cal/g, and 60.11, 76.45, 89.54 and 1.53cal/g, respectively. When all samples were reheated using differential scanning calorimetery after gelling fully, no significant differences of endothermic To, Tp, Tc and $Delta$H appeared. The surface structure of unmodified agar powder observed by light microscope and scanning electron microscope appeared a continuous surface without any indication of small pores, gaps or point of discontinuity. In cases of spray-dried agar, the unstable structures with pores was resulted. The microstructures of extrusion-dried agar, however, was solid with large gaps and areas of discontinuity in the surface. From the results above, it was suggested that significant differences in phase transition and surface microstructures were clearly related to the physicochemical changes and rheological properties, solubility and gelling ability of the types of agar gel.