Papers for the thermal transfer printing of UHF RFID antennas were prepared by coating and calendering. Real and imaginary components of the impedance of the UHF RFID antennas depended on their design, coating composition and conditions of paper calendering. Passive UHF RFID tags were constructed from antennas and chips whose real and imaginary components of impedance in the 860–960 MHz frequency band were at approximately the same level. The communication quality of passive UHF RFID tags was evaluated by measuring the reading range using the designed UHF RFID reading unit. The reading range of experimental UHF RFID tags with printed antennas on paper and commercial UHF RFID tags with chemically etched antennas on a PET film were identical in the 860 MHz frequency.