A coated paper comprised of a paper substrate, at least one surface of which is provided with at least one coating layer, characterized in that the surface of said coating layer has cracks of a width of 0.2 to 3.0 .mu.m and a length of 3 to 1000 .mu.m in an amount of 1 to 1000 cracks per mm.sup.2 is provided. In another embodiment, a coated paper comprised of a paper substrate, at least one surface of which is provided with at least two coating layers, characterized in that an inner coating layer adjoining said paper substrate comprises a pigment having a crystal structure selected from the group consisting of acicular crystal, spindle-shape crystal, columnar crystal, and rice-shape granulated crystal, and starches, and an outermost coating layer formed on said inner coating layer comprises crack formation promoting particles and a styrene-butadiene copolymer having a glass transition temperature of 20 to 150.degree. C. is provided.