Recently the use of web offset printing has been increasing, which can provide high print speed, mass production, and high print quality. However, high speed web offset printing has frequently undergone a blistering problem when the printed paper passes through hot air dryers. Blistering occurs in the middle of the base paper or in the coating layer. This paper focused on the blistering occurring in the base paper. In order to elucidate the effect of pigment ratio on blistering, 6 types of coating color were prepared with varying GCC/clay ratios and printability and blistering were investigated focusing on structure changes in the coating layer. When the clay content in the coating layer was increased, surface roughness and surface strength were decreased and paper gloss was increased. In addition, it was found that the coating layer structure with high clay content, which contains lots of discontinuous pores, hindered water vapors to penetrate out and, as a result, blistering occurred.