Abstract: Dried Xuehua pear slices were prepared by hot air drying, with the color, hardness, elasticity, chewability,total phenols, total flavonoids, soluble sugars, and sensory scores of the pear slices as evaluation indexes, the ef-fects of slice thickness（3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 mm） and color protection treatment（CaCl2, NaCl, D-isoascorbate sodium, citric acid solution soaking, blanching） on the quality of hot air dried slices were investigated, and the Z-score value comprehensive model was used to evaluate in order to optimize the slice thickness and color protection treatment. Results showed that, with the increase of slice thickness, the color of the dried pear slices became darker, and the hardness, elasticity, and chewiness increased, the contents of total phenolics and total flavonoids decreased, while the contents of soluble sugar increased. The evaluation result of the Z-score comprehensive model showed that the sum of Z-values was the highest at the slice thickness of 4 mm. Color protection treatments could improve the color of dried pear slices, increase the content of total phenols and total flavonoids, but reduce the soluble sugar content. The D-isoascorbate sodium treatment group had the highest brightness value（L^*）, the lowest red green value（a^*） and blue yellow value（b^*）, and the smallest color difference value（ΔE）. CaCl₂ treatment increased the hardness of dried pear slices, blanching treatment reduced their elasticity and chewiness of dried pear slices. The Z-score comprehensive model evaluation results showed that soaking with 0.8 g/100 mL of D-isoascorbate sodium solution for color protection had the highest sum of Z-value. In summary, the suitable thickness and color protection conditions for hot air dried Xuehua pear slices were: slice thickness 4 mm, D-isoascorbate sodium solution concentration 0.8 g/100 mL, soaking time 10 minutes.