Ten novel luminescent dyes containing 1,3-indandione or dimedone as electron acceptors, amino derivatives (dimethylamino, diphenylamino, julolidine and dibiphenylamino) as electron donor units and different length olefinic linkers (1-hydroxyallylidene or 1-hydroxypenta-2,4-dien-1-ylidene) are reported in this study. Newly synthesized compound structures are proven with X-ray analysis, 1H, 13C NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The UV–Vis absorption, emission, solvatochromism, solvatofluorochromism, redox properties, as well as thermal stabilities and quantum chemical calculations of these dyes were systematically investigated to outline relation between structure and properties. These dyes exhibit moderate thermal decomposition temperatures above 200 °C, insignificant solvatochromism and positive, significant solvatofluorochromism, large Stokes shifts and green, yellow, orange and red light emission with quantum yields in range from 0.03 to 0.93 in non-polar solvents and in thin films. Quantum-chemical calculations (DFT) shows, that all dyes exhibit small HOMO/LUMO gaps from 2.77 to 3.22 eV, which is in agreement with experimental data.