Thermochromic microcapsules were prepared using thermochromic composite as core-materi-al, gelatin-arabic gum as wal material, glyoxal as crosslinking agent through complex coacervation method. The influences of composition and formulation of core-material on thermochromic property were investigated, and the thermochromic effect was the best using crystal violet lactone, bisphenol A, and hexadecanol/tetradec-anol as core-material with 1∶4∶70 of mass ratio. Through the single-factor and the orthogonal tests, the prep-aration process parameters of microcapsule were optimized. The performance testing results of thermochro-mic microcapsules showed that the average particle size of the microcapsules was 8.14 μm, and thermochro-mic properties, thermal stability, environmental adaptability of the microcapsules were good. The results showed that the thermochromic microcapsules could be used to develop thermochromic fabrics.