A series of dehydroabietic acid-based diarylamines have been synthesized in order to investigate their fluorescent properties, photostability, cell toxicity and in vitro fluorescence imaging. The geometries as well as their molecular properties were optimized at the B3LYP/6-31G~* level using Gaussian 03. The results indicate that molecular geometry, HOMO and LUMO energies, and energy gaps are important to predict absorption and fluorescent properties. Five of the compounds can be effectively taken up by human cervical carcinoma, human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721, human gastric cancer SGC-7901 and human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells and strong blue fluorescent signals are detected in these cells. These compounds are potential candidates for fluorescent probes in biological diagnosis. A series of dehydroabietic acid-based diarylamines have been synthesized in order to investigate their fluorescent properties, photostability, cell toxicity and in vitro fluorescence imaging. The geometries as well as their molecular properties were optimized at the B3LYP / 6-31G ~ * level using Gaussian 03. The results indicate that molecular geometry, HOMO and LUMO energies, and energy gaps are important to predict absorption and fluorescent properties. Five of the compounds can be taken taken up by human cervical carcinoma, human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721, human gastric cancer SGC-7901 and human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells and strong blue fluorescent signals are detected in these cells. These compounds are potential candidates for fluorescent probes in biological diagnosis.