The invention discloses an activated dye resist printing technology for a cotton fabric. The technological process comprises the following steps in sequence: printing, drying, ageing, washing with water, soaping and drying. The formula of the coating white resist paste comprises the following components: 200-400 g/kg of coating white, 150-300 g/kg of an adhesive, 150-300 g/kg of an emulsion thickener, 60-80 g/kg of sodium sulfate; the formula of the coating color resist paste comprises the following components: 200-400 g/kg of a coating, 160-250 g/kg of an adhesive, 40-50 g/kg of an emulsion thickener as a thickener, 30-80 g/kg of sodium sulfate, 200-400 g/kg of an activated dye as printing paste, 400-500 g/kg of 5% sodium alginate paste, 5-10 g/kg of appropriate urea reserve salt S, and 10-25 g/kg of sodium bicarbonate. The requirements on the activated dye for resist printing comprise low affinity to cotton fiber, and low probability of cleaning the unfixed dye.