Effects of artificial thermal aging on color variations of various commercial papers (fine paper, coated paper, newsprint and filter paper) were investigated. With thermal aging at $105^{circ}C$, most of papers showed a special trend in $a^*-b^*$ plane: the $a^*$ (red-green) values of the samples were initially reduced (heading to - $a^*$ side) and after a turning point they increased to +$a^*$ side while the $b^*$(blue-yellow) values were kept increased to +$b^*$ side (yellowing of paper). Different papers had different turning points for $a^*$ value. The filter paper consisted of a pure chemical pulp and the copy paper with OBA (optical brightening agent) showed the latest turing points. In addition, the papers without OBA showed less reduction in brightness compared with that with OBA, suggesting that OBA could adversely influence the brightness stability during thermal aging.