The aim of this work was to study the effect of aqueous adhesives on color of paper surface in paper-based 3D printing. Six cubes of black, grey, white, yellow, magenta and cyan were printed in Matrix 300A, and the chromatic values on six faces of each cube were respectively measured before and after all the faces of six cubes were coated with aqueous adhesives. Before the coating operation, color differences between the top and the bottom faces on six cubes were all below 2.02, color differences among the four side faces were all below 2.60, but color differences between surfaces (the top faces and the bottom faces) and side faces were larger, the maximum was above 25. After the coating, color differences between the top and the bottom faces were all below 2.44, color differences among the four side faces were all below 2.72, while color differences between surfaces and side faces were greatly reduced, except for black color, color differences of other colors between surfaces and side faces were all below 4.72. Moreover, before and after the coating, color differences between surfaces on the six cubes were all below 2.69. Relative to the side face, the effect of aqueous adhesives on paper surface was respectively little. The coating operation could reduce the gap of color difference between surface and side face, which was in favor of a more realistic 3D color reproduction and the color accuracy control.