The present work describes synthesis and photophysical studies of a class of fluorophores containing biologically relevant 1,3-dihydroisobenzofuran scaffold. Ligand-free palladium nanoparticles have been utilized for domino synthesis of 1-arylidene-1,3-dihydroisobenzofurans from 2-iodobenzyl alcohol and terminal arylacetylenes under mild reaction conditions. Reaction of terminal alkylacetylenes with 2-iodobenzyl alcohol however, provided only the Sonogashira products (2-(alk-1-ynyl)phenyl)methanols. The 1-arylidene-1,3-dihydroisobenzofuran derivatives showed structured fluorescence spectra in non-polar cyclohexane, originated from a locally excited state and structureless emission in polar acetonitrile involving intramolecular charge transfer process. The vibronic structures in the locally excited emission were confined to the ring C=C stretching of the dyes. A detailed structure-property relationship of the 1-arylidene-1,3-dihydroisobenzofuran dyes is presented in this study. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim